Experience the legacy of smart, risky and creative endeavors supported by Kindle Project. We regularly post new nexus stories to illuminate how Kindle community members are bringing new methods, traditional practices and fresh hope and vigor to shifting global systems.

CoClimate CoClimate is a research & design studio whose mission is to provoke, stimulate, and inspire new connections between people, technology, and the environment. We work with organizations to re-engage exhausted audiences around climate change, undertake social science-base research, clarify strategy, intent, and vision, and we design imagery, experiences, and objects that are beautiful, compelling, imaginative, and legible for people from different worldviews and frames of reference. CoClimate is fiscally-sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.
The first large project that CoClimate took on was researching, curating and designing the exhibition “Strange Weather: Forecasts from the Future.” We began dreaming about creating a climate change exhibition back in 2011, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2014 that the exhibition was launched.
Our team was interested in seeing if there were ways to more directly connect climate to culture. We wanted to design an exhibition about this challenging topic, but one that was engaging, delightful and beautiful, not the adjectives often associated with Climate Change messaging. We knew that many visitors to our exhibition might be exhausted or overwhelmed at even the mention of Climate Change, so it was important to create exhibits and invite artists who would change their perspective. This is as serious a topic as can be imagined, but we do our best work when we are curious, laughing and open to new possibilities. In the autumn of 2013, we were asked to say a few words about what we thought the Strange Weather exhibition might be. The off-the-cuff video below shows our unscripted thoughts before we began our research phase, but many of these instinctual comments ended up showing through in the final exhibition.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVpFwG9hZeQ#t=72[/embed]
9 Months later we had completed the research and production of the exhibition. The video below is a compilation of the opening weekend, which shows some of the many artworks in the show. We were fortunate to have worked with the excellent team at Science Gallery and had many amazing participating artists.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-DOryiV1s0&list=UUoDimMxzIgWqr4jsNN4g7lg#t=26[/embed]
One of the legacies of the exhibition is the many hours of YouTube videos where members of the public read weather forecasts from the future. In addition to watching the playback of these videos, audience members shared these clips with their friends and the general public through social media.
For the Strange Weather exhibition there was a selection of 8 videos visitors could choose from. CoClimate produced 4 of the videos, and other videos were produced by other artists that participated in the exhibition. The feedback we received was that people really enjoyed reading the weather report, a well known trope, but with content that was from the far future. Building on this experience we are currently working on a refined version of this artwork. Strange Weather continues to be one of our major research programs, and we are looking for other methods for connecting culture and climate, and imaging alternative atmospheric futures.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai5os1_q3C8 [/embed]
Superclime is a new program from CoClimate. The Superclime program and tools are designed for communicators, designers, journalists, researchers, and leaders who want to help their organizations do some of the heavy lifting that comes with strategic planning and setting communications goals around climate change.
Getting “all the right pieces” on the table can be complicated–especially when starting from scratch. Finding clarity in informal interactions, structured meetings, and planning sessions can be a challenge without frameworks to guide discussions and orient outcomes. Moreover, internalizing how engagement with climate change fits with an organization’s mission and culture is critical.[gallery ids="5993,5994,5995"]
We are using our Superclime program to compile some of the best frameworks to help support the goals, audiences, constraints, and objectives communicators might have. Our first map and card sets are pieces of that puzzle. We have plans for more.
Understanding complicated human dynamics is difficult enough, and we wanted practical tools to help individuals and organizations make sense of their own experiences, unleash their creativity, and transform those insights into strategic planning. We think that “helping people be better than they think they are” is a strong first step.
CoClimate’s Gabriel Harp recently conducted a workshop with the Mono Lake Committee and shared his insights about the climate change communications landscape in the United States. The Eastern Sierra region is experiencing massive change brought on by climate change and intensified by California’s four-year drought. Visit our site to read about the session and how the group was able use these tools to build a better climate change plan.

Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary
by Juan William Chávez
As an artist, I use the studio as a space to contemplate, explore, develop and discover new ideas. I create an environment where I can approach projects with a beginner’s mind by opening myself up to the possibilities with eagerness and a lack of preconceived notions. Beginner’s mind has many possibilities, is free of influences, and is open to unknown potential that can lead to transformation. Transforming ideas, objects, and the environment is the foundation of the art experience which often leads to innovation and problem solving issues that are complexed or abstract. I developed a collective practice when I began focusing on socially engaged art projects in North Saint Louis in 2010 through a non-profit organization named Northside Workshop (NSW). NSW is a nonprofit art space dedicated to addressing cultural and community issues in North Saint Louis through experiential workshops that promote engagement among residents. These projects allowed me to begin expanding my own notion of the studio and brought me to ask myself challenging questions about what can be deemed a studio.
In 2010, Northside Workshop began to develop the Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary, a public proposal aiming to transform the urban forest where the Pruitt-Igoe housing development once stood into a public space that preserves the remaining 33 acres of green space to cultivate community through beekeeping and urban agriculture. The 33 acres of green space began to appear to me as a studio and tool for community building. Without having direct access to the site itself, we developed a pilot program to present the Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary proposal on a smaller scale at the Northside Workshop’s home location.
NSW is located in a neighborhood adjacent to the Pruitt-Igoe site and consists of a two-story building, as well as green spaces that surround three sides of the building. In 2012, we built an apiary and raised garden beds, filled the workshop with art supplies, and began to host pilot programming called the Young Hony Crew. A studio practice began to take shape in the form of beekeeping and gardening. NSW was not only becoming a space for me to contemplate ideas for community-based projects, but also a platform for educational and social programming.
[gallery ids="5935,5936,5937,5938,5940,5941"]
The Young Honey Crew was especially meaningful following the death of Mike Brown this summer and the protests happening in Ferguson and around the city. There was an overall feeling of distress during this time. Some students in the program particularly sought space to think and create, while others needed a place for dialogue. NSW was able to function as a sanctuary for contemplation. The workshops began to slowly evolve to become more about community and collective thinking. I replaced the concept of teaching as an expert with encouraging students to explore ideas together with me during workshop time.
[gallery ids="5942,5943,5944"]
Over the past few months, the world has witnessed a huge collective spirit arise from a diverse group of people in Ferguson from all walks of life, artists, activists, educators, students and citizens, coming together in innovative ways to demand change. This local response to injustice here in Saint Louis sparked other neighborhoods to take action, which spread to other US cities and countries around the world calling for transformative change simultaneously. While the pursuit for justice continues, this movement has brought a new community together and been a living example of local action and the power of the human collective.
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“These are the times to grow our souls. Each of us is called upon to embrace the conviction that despite the powers and principalities bent on commodifying all our human relationships, we have the power within us to create the world anew. We can begin by doing small things at the local level, like planting community gardens or looking out for our neighbors. That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously “ - Grace Lee Boggs
Juan William Chávez is an artist and cultural activist who explores the potential of space through creative initiatives that address community and cultural issues. His studio practice incorporates unconventional forms of beekeeping, agriculture, and architectural interventions that utilize art as a way of researching, developing and implementing socially-engaged and creative placemaking projects. He founded the Northside Workhsop in 2010, a nonprofit art space dedicated to addressing cultural and community issues in North Saint Louis. He has received awards and grants from Creative Capital, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Art Matters and the Gateway Foundation. Chávez holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Announcement of Fall 2014 Grantees 2014 is coming to a close and we’re all exhaling in inspired confusion at the fascinating planet we live on. Have you all had a very full year, too? It’s been a year of reaching new apexes of struggle for all those working tirelessly for justice, conversation, and human rights. In the face of the grandness of our challenges, how can we stay hopeful and continue on in inspired action? For us, hope lies in the innumerable groups, artists, thinkers and individuals who are actively making the change our world needs.
Our fall grantees this year have been a part of the Kindle family for quite some time and our commitment to them is because of the hope and impact they create through their work.
We’ve shared many of their stories with you over the past year, and it’s been an incredible learning experience to see just how deeply these organizations dig to reveal the roots of the systemic problems we’re facing. We would like to take a moment to shine some light on the work of our grantees.
Amazon Watch has acknowledged women in the Amazon for their high level contribution to climate change.
Wildfire Project has used experimental education to make the movements they support sustainable and connected.
May First/People Link empowers us to protect and develop the Internet in ways that serve the common good.
Sins Invalid demonstrates creativity bringing disability justice to the forefront of public discourse.
New Mexico Environmental Law Center perseveres with their unceasingly vibrant, tireless and creative practice of law, making massive change for our New Mexico communities.
Generation Food inspires us with their groundbreaking food justice media work.
The Center for PostNatural History expands their impressive archive of living things altered by genetic modification.
Yansa reminds us about the power of innovation and collaboration.
New Economy Coalition grounds us in what kind of transformation is truly possible.
Movement Generation mobilizes communities of color across the country.
CoClimate, our newest grantee partner, imagines new ways for us to re-engage with the most challenging issues in a positive way.
Following the work of grantee partners has lifted our spirits and energized our work to carry us through 2014 and begin 2015 with gusto. We truly feel privileged to work with a such an amazing team of radical, world changing super heroes. Happy New Year, Kindle community!

Sandy Storyline The power of stories in the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Sandy
by Michael Premo
Originally published on wagingviolence.org on November 11, 2014
Two years after Hurricane Sandy crashed into the U.S. East Coast, many people are still searching for relief. Months of spiraling through the recovery process have turned some residents into organic experts on aspects of disaster response. But it’s unclear if anyone is listening to them, especially among the network of institutions responsible for recovery and preparing us for the future.
James Keady, a New Jersey resident and dedicated Sandy volunteer made headlines at the end of October when he tried to get the attention of Gov. Chris Christie at a press conference. With his typical brashness Gov. Christie told him to “sit down and shut up.” That single moment of rebuke, seemed to sum up the dismissive attitude hindering the state’s response.
Contrary to the perception fanned by celebrity benefits and political boasting, the recovery is far from over. It never is a quick process to begin with. While some have been able to repair or return to a level of normalcy, there remain many who haven’t. For residents, the process of rebuilding has been slow at best and in the worse cases, painfully stagnant.
“I’m sure many people are still trying to recover from Sandy,” writes Donna Battaglia of Toms River, N. J., in her contribution to Sandy Storyline on the second anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. “For myself, and many other renters, it has been a battle that seems too hard to win. My landlord did nothing to renovate the home I had lived in for over a year and my children and I were forced to stay with family for months. FEMA only helped so much. The insurance company refused to pay any money for my lost belongings claiming they weren’t necessities … We will never get back to normal. This is just the new normal.”
A recent poll of 600 severely-impacted New Jersey residents by Monmouth University, found that one in five respondents still suffer from serious psychological stress, and “that little has changed in these survivors’ mental health picture over the past year.”
In New York City, more than 90 percent of the 14,000 homeowners who applied for rebuilding assistance from the city’s Build It Back initiative have yet to receive it. Even the number 14,000 might not be representative of the scale of the need because, as the city itself acknowledged, it had “a multi-layered and confusing application process,” “poor communications with applicants” and “inefficient processing of applications.”
The impact of any disaster is complex. It’s effects are as densely nuanced as the physical and social landscape where it occurs. And the response required for any acute or systemic disaster must be as dynamic, with meaningful participation and leadership by the people affected. Traditional, top down, aid models are not as agile as the communities they serve and too frequently ineffectual.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is asking some Sandy aid recipients to return a total of $5.8 million in relief money. Not as a result of any fraud, but because of the agency’s own mismanagement.
And in a revelation that came as little surprise to some impacted residents, a joint investigation by ProPublica and NPR into the American Red Cross suggests they were more concerned “about the appearance of aid, not actually delivering it.” For their appearance the Red Cross netted $1 billion in donations.
In the hours after Sandy made landfall in the United States on October 29, 2012, the notion of meaningful participation was forward on my mind. As the scope of the impact became clear, one of the interrelated responses I participated in was working with Rachel Falcone and Waging Nonviolence editor Laura Gottesdiener to start Sandy Storyline.
[caption id="attachment_36356" align="alignnone" width="287"] Sandy Storyline’s latest exhibit at the New York Public Library. (Sandy Storyline/Michael Premo)[/caption]
Launched in the week after the storm, Sandy Storyline is a participatory documentary that invites anyone impacted by the storm and its aftermath to contribute and share their story in photos, words, audio or video. Stories are shared through the website, syndication with media partners and interactive exhibitions. Our latest exhibition is currently touring local branches of the New York Public Library. Next year we will launch an immersive web-based documentary.
By engaging people in sharing their own experiences and visions, Sandy Storyline is collaborating with contributors, and partners, to build a community-generated narrative of the storm and its aftermath. Hurricane Sandy was a devastating event that affected millions across the Caribbean and eastern United States. The multi-year rebuilding process will have direct implications on national policy and development practices in the era of a changing climate and increasing economic inequality.
Hurricane Sandy, nicknamed “Superstorm” by the media, was a massive weather system that is a harbinger of things to come. As the storm moved north through the Atlantic Ocean, along the coast, it collided with an Arctic jet stream. The abnormally warm temperature of the ocean’s surface water had already intensified the strength of the storm. Typically, prevailing westerly winds blow Atlantic hurricanes out to sea where they dissipate. But the Arctic front pushed it into the coast. The unusual shape and atmospheric pressure of the jet stream and Arctic front was caused by the melting of Arctic ice because of climate change.
The storm surge and subsequent flooding was exacerbated by a full moon high tide, reaching heights of almost 14 feet. And although Hurricane Sandy is an extreme example, a new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that “Flooding during high tides — something that rarely occurred in the past — is now common in some places and is projected to grow to the point that sections of coastal cities may flood so often they would become unusable in the near future.”
With Hurricane Sandy we have an opportunity to see the complex impacts of one of the more “worst case scenarios,” in this new era of climate change-induced volatility. As Donna Battaglia demonstrated, Sandy Storyline offers moving portraits that broadcast what this “new normal” already looks and feels like. The challenge for communities, business interests and government is to interrogate these impacts in a way to ensure that both the analysis and outcome is shaped by the meaningful participation of the communities on the frontlines of impact.
This is why we started Sandy Storyline. But we’re just one project. Some local and national newspapers have solicited stories and reader feedback. But disasters on this scale need many more projects like this, produced by independent and mainstream media outlets alike.
We also need to strengthen the democratic mechanisms of our civic institutions so organic experts like Keady, and thousands like him, can meaningfully contribute without being told to “sit down and shut up.” And where these mechanisms don’t exist, we need to build new ones.
The participation and leadership of affected communities won’t save us from future moments of crisis. But it is our best hope at making sure every segment of society is as resilient as it needs to be, to weather an uncertain future.

High Mayhem: Times of Change Times of Change
by Carlos Santistevan
As artists we create art because we need to. It’s a calling of sorts. An intrinsic need to create. I find my own art to be my medicine, my antidote for the struggles and often times, the expression of the happiness and fulfillment I get in life. When art doesn’t happen or life eliminates a space for it, I begin to feel toxic. Things just don’t feel right.
But it’s tough being an artist today. Art that is meaningful is rarely supported by mainstream media. Our education system has done a disservice where no longer is art given a space so it can be taken in, contemplated, and understood. People grow up without a way to ingest the unfamiliar without immediate judgment.
We are finding that the relevant art of our time becomes more and more distant from the public’s reach, awareness, and ability to interpret. And this makes me wonder….if the lack of my own art in my own life has such a negative effect, how does this affect the greater consciousness of us as a species, as humans when we are deprived of meaningful art? Are many of society’s ills the result of people not being given an opportunity to create and express themselves? Is our lack of empathy the result that we don’t often enough see the human side of fellow citizens expressing themselves though art and music? Is our humanity dwindling due to the lack of expression and understanding of each other?
Here’s the issue: We as artists are dependent upon consumers for our livelihood. For the musician, it means that we need a medium which people can be given the opportunity to digest our art and take it in. The current state of the recording industry and consumer habits are making this more and more difficult. Our niche becomes smaller and smaller as people generally lack the ability to discern and interpret art for themselves.
For a visual artist, they must be able to sell their work, which generally requires a higher price tag to be financially viable. And who can generally afford such luxuries? Often times it’s the wealthy, the rich. Visual artists often become dependent on the upper class, which is often contradictory to the art itself, and is reliant on a small population of consumers. Unfortunately our ability to make and distribute art often depends upon having the financial means to do so.
For 14 years, High Mayhem Emerging Arts has been able to sustain itself primarily from the intense drive we, as artists, feel the need to create and give opportunities for the public to experience emerging and progressive arts. Financially we have remained viable by contributions of members, community support, and for the last 6 years, the support of the Kindle Project. However, our window of being financially able to support a venue is waning. As of the end of this year High Mayhem will be closing its venue for the foreseeable future. We understand that this is the reality and have shifted our focus to acceptance and in many ways an opportunity for reinvention.
As artists it is our obligation to continually adapt to our surroundings. Our art is a reflection of our life and circumstance, so in no way do we perceive this as an ending. This is a new circumstance in which we adapt, evolve, and which will serve as an inspiration in further creations.
We feel that now is a time when art and music are more relevant than they have been in some time. Now is the time in which we must create, heighten awareness, and connect with each other’s humanity. High Mayhem has and will continue to do just do what we’ve always done albeit in a different circumstance. While we may no longer have a physical permanent home, we have learned so much in the past 14 years that will only carry us farther forward. We will be more modular and more adaptive. Expect pop up performances and pirate video broadcasts as we pursue, seek out, and exploit new forms of art presentation. We are in the midst of designing a new recording studio, which we hope to begin building in the next year to serve as home to our recording studio, record label and pirate video broadcasts.
Currently we are in the midst of our annual Fall Series. A final kick off to our 2nd performance space. This year’s lineup is a true representation of what we’ve
been, who we are, and where we’re heading. Feel free to tune in to one of pirate video broadcast at highmayhem.org/livestream on November 8th, 15th, and 22nd starting at 7:30 pm MTN time.
Check out this video promo from our first night of the series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbKQACAqFro
Stay tuned and let’s do what we can to keep art and music vibrant and viable for ourselves as well as the greater good of society.

Amazon Watch – Protectors of the Rainforest and Prime Indie Funders One of our grantees that continues to stand out in the in their incredible efforts with their dedication, longevity and groundbreaking service to the Amazon is holding an event that takes you up close and personal with their wild and adventurous work! Working with indigenous communities and environmental groups, Amazon Watch’s work is rooted in the richness and diversity of creatures, cultures, and habitats of the rainforest. Their campaigns tackle human rights, rainforest deforestation, corporate accountability and the overall protection of the Amazon. Their annual fundraising luncheon (happening today) is a perfect example of how their essential work inspires and ignites.
The 2014 annual Amazon Watch luncheon starts today at 12:00pm Pacific Time, and you can watch it from the convenience of your computer screen. We encourage you to join Amazon Watch and friends to celebrate and acknowledge the work of individuals in the indigenous communities they support, and the movement connected to their efforts.
The annual luncheon will feature Patricia Gualinga – an inspiring indigenous leader from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Patricia was an official delegate to Climate Week in New York last month bringing with her the cinematic and powerful video, Keep the Oil in the Ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sRDxXWkCnM
This is a unique opportunity to learn about the real life experience of the people our funding supports. Amazon Watch is a group close to our hearts, not only because of their tireless work in the Amazon, but also because our friends and colleagues are a part of this stellar group. Branden Barber, is Amazon Watch’s Director of Engagement sits on the Kindle Project Steering Committee. And the imitable Atossa Soltani is the Founder of Amazon Watch and is about to transition from her position as Executive Director to President of the Board is a close ally and friend of Kindle and of the Indie Philanthropy Initiative.
Last week at the Environmental Grantmakers Association Annual Retreat Atossa spoke with Kindle Project and Quixote Foundation on a panel about Indie Philanthropy. Amazon Watch’s unique use of Micro Granting acts as a phenomenal example of how a little can go an extremely long way. Amazon Watch’s Micro Granting story will be live online next week when we launch our Indie Philanthropy Initiative website on October 15th.
We hope you’ll join us as we tune in live for the web broadcast of the Amazon Watch luncheon.
All proceeds of this event go directly to Amazon Watch. If you feel inclined to contribute as a result of participating in the event or otherwise, you can donate to them directly here.

Ghana Think Tank The Ghana ThinkTank (GTT) is known for its unconventional approach to negotiating social conflicts. Using a blend of public art and community organizing, we have been “Developing the First World" since 2006. We collect problems in the “developed” world, and send them to be solved by think tanks we established in Cuba, Ghana, Palestine, Iran, Mexico and a group of incarcerated teenage girls in the U.S.. Then we work with the communities where the problems originated to implement those solutions - whether they seem impractical or brilliant.
The impetus for the project came from our own experiences in international development, and frustration with US interventionism. By exchanging problems and looking for help in unexpected places, we undermine assumptions about the roles of helper vs helped so that those accustomed to imparting wisdom are put in the position of asking for help, and vice-versa. This creates unlikely networks that cross-divides of ethnic and social conflict.
In addition to cities in the U.S., the Ghana ThinkTank has been commissioned in Germany, Israel, China, England, Morocco and Kosovo.
We are currently in the middle of two domestic projects that Kindle is supporting, along with start up funds and support from Creative Capital.
Ghana ThinkTank at the Mexican Border – A Creative Capital Project
Our success at bringing conflicting groups together at an international level has encouraged us to address immigration in our own country. In Ghana ThinkTank at the Mexico Border we are addressing the divides (and shared issues) between US born and foreign‐born residents. We have been applying our process to spark collaborations between right-wing border vigilantes and undocumented immigrants in neighboring communities. Our work so far has focused on Tijuana and San Diego but we are expanding our scope to include small towns in the American heartland where similar conflicts over immigration are taking place.
[gallery columns="4" ids="5786,5788,5789,5790,5791,5792,5793,5796,5798,5800,5801,5794"]
Ghana ThinkTank, Detroit
Our other domestic project evolved out of a commission by the US State Department to work as cultural ambassadors in Morocco. In Morocco we built a solar powered multi-media donkey cart in order to collect solutions to US problems from rural villagers and ad-hoc think tanks outside of Marrakech. One of the problems the think tanks were most interested in was the problem of US individualism and personal isolation, “many Americans don’t know or relate to their neighbors…”
"It’s your architecture” they responded, “if you lived in housing like ours it would help solve the problem”.
They explained that by having a central courtyard with windows facing in and one common entrance, it created social environments where neighbors shared more and were more likely to trust each other. This approach stands in stark contrast to the single family house with yard and picket fence that is common throughout the U.S.
In addition to these two projects, we are currently developing work in Sweden, the Netherlands, Texas, and continuing to implement some of the long-standing Think Tank solutions, including the Call to Action featured below.
Day Labor Employment Agreement - Referenced for Call to Action Below
This AGREEMENT, entered into this ____day of _________________, 20___, between _____________________, the ("Employer"), and ___________________________________ (the "Employee"),
WITNESSETH THAT:
WHEREAS, the parties hereto desire to enter into this Agreement to define and set forth the terms and conditions of the employment of the Employee by the Employer;
NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the mutual covenants and agreements set forth below, it is hereby covenanted and agreed by the Employer and the Employee as follows:
1. Position; Employment Period The Employer hereby employs the Employee as agent of cultural diversity, and the Employee hereby agrees to serve in such capacity, for the period beginning this ____day of ______________, 20___, at _____ and ending on this ____ day of, ______________, 20___, at _____, the "Employment Period."
2. Performance of Duties The Employee agrees that during the Employment Period s/he shall devote his or her full employment period to the business affairs of the Employer and shall perform his or her duties faithfully and efficiently subject to the direction of the Employer and as stipulated below:
1. Engage white event attendees in conversation about subjects of your choice
2. Partake of food and drink liberally
3. Observe environment and comment at will
3. Compensation
(a) Subject to the following provisions of this Agreement, during the Employment Period the Employee shall be compensated for his services as follows:
(b) S/he shall receive an hourly salary, payable on this _____ day of, ___________, 20___, at _____ in a single installment, in an amount which shall be [$ ________].
The Employee shall not be assigned duties and responsibilities that are not generally within the scope and character associated or required of other employees of similar rank and position.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Employee has hereunto set his/her hand, and the Employer has caused these presents to be executed in its name and on its behalf, all as of the day and year first above written. Signature Date _______________ Please Print ________________________________________

Antena Listening As A Form Of Speaking: A Brief Guide To Antena
Antena is a collaborative co-founded by Jen Hofer and John Pluecker in 2010. Antena does language justice and language experimentation.
[caption id="attachment_5768" align="alignnone" width="1024"] John Pluecker (wearing the red vest) interpreting at a rally in El Paso as part of the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, August 2012[/caption]
What is language justice? Read this interview Nancy Wozny of arts + culture tx did with Antena to see how we answered that question.
[caption id="attachment_5769" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Antena performing live interpretation/improvisation at the opening of the Antena @ Blaffer Installation at University of Houston, January 2014; Photo: David Leftwich[/caption]
What is language experimentation? We wrote A Manifesto for Discomfortable Writing to remind ourselves to use language as a spark for radicalizing our own thinking, and then we devised a discomfortable writing and performance practice as an experiment in discomfortable art-making.
[caption id="attachment_5770" align="alignnone" width="1068"] Mexican artist Nuria Montiel turned the AntenaMóvil into a mobile printing press as part of the encuentro Antena hosted in conjunction with Antena @ Blaffer; Photo: Pablo Giménez Zapiola[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_5771" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Antena @ Blaffer installation at University of Houston, January – May 2014; Photo: Pablo Giménez Zapiola[/caption]
How does our work manifest? In the past year we have facilitated workshops, co-taught classes, created writings, made translations, enacted performances, interpreted a range of bilingual events, and fabricated bilingual books, some of which were photographed in this interview with Alex Barber for “Meet Your Maker Monday” on the Houston Makerspace Blog. From January to May of this year we were in residence at Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, with an installation that featured over 2000 books made by more than 100 small independent presses in the U.S. and Latin America. The books were primarily innovative texts by writers of color as well as queer, genderqueer and feminist writers; writing from all over the world in translation into English; and experimental writing in Spanish from Latin America. The books shared space with works by 11 artists who make text-based visual work—5 local Houston artists and 6 artists from elsewhere: Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, and the U.S. You can take a brief video tour of our installation as part of this interview Caleb Beckwith did with Jen for The Conversant.
[caption id="attachment_5772" align="alignnone" width="1195"] The AntenaMóvil at the El Dorado Ballroom at Project Row Houses in Houston, January 2014; Photo: Jen Hofer[/caption]
Kindle Project support is making it possible for Antena to expand our language justice work in Los Angeles, where we just formed a satellite collective called Antena Los Ángeles to do multilingual organizing locally—Antena Los Ángeles collective members are Ana Paula Noguez Mercado, Jen Hofer and Miguel Morales Cruz. Jen will bring the AntenaMóvil from Houston to Los Angeles, where she’ll retrofit it to be a bit more hill-worthy than it currently is, and use it as a tool for raising awareness about language justice and as a resource for other artists and activists.
Stay tuned for news of the Antena Los Ángeles page on Antena’s website, a new video of Antena’s installation at Blaffer Art Museum in Houston TX, and news of the travels of the AntenaMóvil!

The Wildfire Project Our generation is coming of age amidst deep economic, political, and ecological crisis – and rising to the challenge. But it’s going to take a movement to address these crises at their roots, to win the world we actually deserve.
This new political generation needs what every successful movement throughout history has had: institutions that strengthen the new formations emerging from struggle, processes that organize new constituencies, training that deepens politics, sharpens skills, and builds groups. Even more, it needs infrastructure that helps groups and individuals connect across issue lines, to prepare for the crises ahead, to cultivate the ability to go on the offensive to turn those coming crises into opportunities for collective liberation. We need our own Freedom Schools, a dozen more Highlander Centers, infrastructure that speaks our language – the language of a new movement being born.
We need a Wildfire.
The Wildfire Project
The Wildfire Project uses experiential education to fuse deep political education, serious organizing training, and meaningful personal and group transformation into long-term processes for groups in action, toward actually connecting them to one another. The groups we work with are emerging from the major movement moments of our time (like Occupy and Trayvon), confronting our greatest challenges (from housing to mass incarceration and climate), and are of the communities they serve. We prioritize groups early in their stages of formation, and that truly need the support we can offer in order to meet their enormous potential, and we make our programming free so that those most marginalized can benefit from them.
The first conversations about Wildfire took place as Occupy was winding down. We knew there would be more moments like that on our horizon, and we understood that the movement needed more infrastructure to be able to push those moments to their real potential. In the midst of our own process of listening and learning from other trainers, elders, mentors, and community members, Superstorm Sandy hit New York. We sprang into action as part of Occupy Sandy, ultimately finding ourselves in hard-hit areas of New York like Far Rockaway just as people were beginning to make the transition from relief work to long-term grassroots organizing. Residents of the Rockaways in particular began to express needs - political education connecting the hurricane to the climate crisis and capitalism, organizing training to support their ongoing base-building, group development to build strong collective infrastructure that would outlast the storm; it started to sound like Wildfire. In consultation with residents from the Rockaways, local activists, Occupy Sandy organizers, and others, we built our first Wildfire program.
In the year and a half since, Wildfire has run training programs with seven powerful front-line groups around the country, built an incredible training team of folks from different movement backgrounds, and assembled a humbling advisory board of mentors and allies. We raised the money needed to make all of our programs free, so that the most marginalized people and the groups they’ve built can benefit from them, and we’ve created a curriculum that adapts to the needs of the communities we work with.
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Training toward Movement-Building
On one hand, Wildfire provides vital training to groups who need it most - sophisticated long-term processes fusing political education and skills training, all carried out using experiential, democratic educational methods, and with the explicit aim of fostering deep personal transformations and building strong groups that can take care of themselves.
But Wildfire is more than training; it is movement-building.
In August, we launched our Wildfire Fellowship Program, bringing together 20 organizers from the groups we've trained to sharpen their facilitation and leadership skills, build relationships across groups, and start dreaming about the powerful movement we are building together. Now these Fellows have gone back to run trainings inside their organizations with consistent mentorship and ongoing long-distance training from the Wildfire Team.
In November, they'll help us lift Fired Up: The Wildfire National Convening, where we'll bring together a serous showing of the groups to continue building across issues, geographies, and identities. Together, we'll ask the big questions: How will we rise to the challenge of the coming movement moments? How will we step up to turn crisis into opportunity for fundamental social change?
The real point is a movement - to connect those groups to one another – to break issue silos, share experience, find common goals and targets, and lay the foundation of a network of front-line groups ready to rise to the challenge of the future movement moments on the horizon, and to turn crisis into opportunity for meaningful political, social, and economic change.
Investing in Wildfire
Because of the types of groups we work with, our programs are free for participants. We partner with the group’s organizers to raise the money needed to run the programs. We do our best to keep costs low, we work hard to get things like food and space in-kind whenever possible, and we raise the rest from individual donors, small movement-oriented foundations, and activist organizations in ways that never jeopardize or shape our programming or our politics. We are committed to doing what we can to bring new resources into the movement and work collaboratively with other movement groups to share the networks we have.
The groups we work with have something in common: They want to be powerful. They are multiracial, multi-generational, and working poor - at the frontlines of the economic crisis that threatens their basic survival whether by drowning them in hurricane waters or debt – and they are fighting back. They are all products of movement moments, are shaped by the desire to use their local work to propel a national and global movement, and have the type of agility needed to spring into action as a fundamental part of their DNA. They are working toward winning real gains for their people, whie also building for the big struggles ahead – struggles around climate, the economy, and democracy. They want to be part of a powerful movement that can win.
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Center for Court Innovation From the Navajo Nation to Red Hook, Brooklyn, Peacemaking forges long-lasting connections
By Erika Sasson
I remember meeting our first peacemaking participants, in February of 2013. It was just after we opened the doors to our program in Brooklyn, NY, and I still wasn’t sure what we were in for. Even though we had enough community volunteers who had been trained by peacemakers from the Navajo Nation, it was a pretty small group. And, at the time, we were sharing an office with the Housing Resource Center because our space in the Red Hook Community Justice Center had just been flooded by Superstorm Sandy. All in all, I felt nervous.
The participants were two female neighbors from an apartment building who had gotten into a physical fight and had been arrested for assault. We spoke to them separately and told them about peacemaking, and that we were a brand new program. Peacemaking, we explained, is a Native American tradition that emphasizes healing and restoration. Simply put, it’s about talking something out. We explained that they would sit in a circle with the opposing party, members of their families to support them, and a few community peacemakers. The peacemakers were trained to listen, but also to share their own stories. Unlike some other types of alternative dispute resolution, we wouldn’t only focus on the incident that had brought them to the room, but we would talk about underlying issues and how to move forward in a positive way. We asked them to trust us. They said they would participate.
Our peacemakers on that case were as diverse as our beloved New York City. One was a gay African-American male, another was a Catholic nun from Italy, and a third was a Hispanic community activist and grandmother from Red Hook, Brooklyn. Each peacemaker brought with them stories from their own lives, times when they’ve fought with neighbors, experiences they’ve had living in close quarters, ways they’ve dealt with tension and frustration. They spoke about the impact this fight was having on the participants’ children.
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But mostly our peacemakers listened. Each person in the room was allowed to speak for as long as they wanted, and order was maintained through use of a talking piece. Slowly, we found out about some of the underlying issues in each person’s life. We heard grief and trauma. And we cleared the air from some misunderstandings and assumptions our participants had been carrying with them during the many interactions that had led to their confrontation.
Although each case is different, for this case we held three peacemaking sessions. At the outset of each peacemaking session, we serve a hot meal to break the ice.[1] During the third meal, our peacemakers noticed that the neighbors had come in and sat down next to each other to eat and were chatting nonchalantly. That was the first sign that peacemaking was on its way to completion. At the end of the session, the participants apologized to each other and signed a paper that contained their “resolution by consensus”, in which they stated that they had resolved their differences. We said our goodbyes and one of the women left the building to wait for the bus to go home. The second participant was being picked up by her husband in a car, and when she realized that her counterpart was waiting outside in the cold, she rushed out to the bus stop and drove her home. We were relieved.
Since that first successful outcome, we’ve grown as a program and as peacemakers. We have worked with over fifty cases, and we now have over 25 trained peacemakers. Both our participants and our peacemakers come from very diverse ethnic, socio-economic, religious and cultural backgrounds. We’ve had remarkable successes—people have resolved disputes, attained employment, enrolled in college, completed GED programs, and healed relationships.
Our Navajo mentors taught us about kinship and connectedness as the basis of peacemaking. They have also said that sometimes peacemaking is just the beginning of long-term healing. We saw that play out in a case involving an assault between two sisters. By the end of the case, which took six sessions over many months, our participant had apologized and made amends with her sister, and had improved her own life by creating a resume and then getting a job. She also gave back to the community by doing community service. The court case was resolved and everyone moved on. Over two months later, one of the peacemakers received a call from our former participant. She was angry at a co-worker who was yelling racist slurs and baiting her to fight, but she said that she didn’t want to go down that road again. She stopped the altercation to go make the call to her peacemaker. She asked the peacemaker to help her regain her self-control, something they had talked about at length during her sessions. She said she wanted to walk away, and then she did.
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Erika Sasson is the peacemaking program director for the Center of Court Innovation, responsible for the planning, implementation and management of the peacemaking program. Ms. Sasson also serves as senior associate on the Tribal Justice Exchange, providing planning and technical assistance to tribal communities across the United States. Originally from Montreal, Ms. Sasson received her Bachelor's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto and her civil and common law degrees from McGill University. Prior to joining the Center, she worked in Toronto as a federal prosecutor, where she handled drug, gun, and gang cases. Ms. Sasson completed fellowships on monitoring and preventing torture for the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, on criminal justice and civil rights for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and on the penal system of the indigenous Awá nation for an NGO in Ecuador. Ms. Sasson moved to New York in 2009 to attend New York University, where she received an L.L.M. degree in criminal justice.
[1] Our program is generously funded by The Bureau of Justice Assistance. The food is funded separately by a generous grant from the Kindle Project. We are grateful to all of our funders.

Zane Fischer Answers the Kindle Questionnaire Who are your real-life heroes in your field?
I hope the most important field I'm working in is the diligent research and discovery of a good life. Some of my heroes are Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Richman, Sarah Silverman. Ugh.
When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
When it dovetails with the goal of a good life. When creativity and collaboration open up new ways of seeing and ways of being.
What is the trait you most deplore of your field?
The tendency for tasks that should be creative and fruitful collaborations to devolve into insecurity, nitpicking, fear and mistrust.
If funding were no object, what would you do?
I would work on quality of life issues in and around small, liveable cities that have the capacity to be profoundly productive communities if they can attract and retain creative, dedicated, soulful people.
What’s your favourite way to procrastinate at work?
I like to read posts on Medium.
Favourite moment at work?
Brainstorming. Idea creation. You know what I'm talking about.
Favourite visual artist?
My favorite visual artist is probably Joseph Beuys. He rode a line between contemporary, critical investigation and raw, animalistic magical totemism that is almost impossibly difficult to achieve without seeming contrived.
Favourite song?
Eye of the Tiger?
Favourite activist?
How about Emile Zola
Favourite historical figure?
I'm kind of a Nikolai Tesla fan. I mean, who isn't?
What did you eat for dinner last night?
Breakfast. Beautifully poached eggs on top of toast from fresh, home baked bread with a side of thick, indulgent bacon.
What do you think is the greatest social issue of our time?
Income inequality or, put another way, the inevitable and intractable stupidity of money. Money breaks the rhythm of life and it really, really sucks.
What do you think is the greatest environmental issue of our time?
Money. Get rid of money and you very likely get rid of environmental issues. But it's probably water that's going to destroy us one way or another. Possibly by blasting into the atmosphere after an asteroid impact and raining back down on us in the form of razor-sharp frozen knives of death. I mean, maybe.
How do you think we can change the world?
By getting serious about living better individual lives and choosing to stop being distracted the false requisites we have assembled around survival and prosperity.
What book are you reading right now?
The Painter, by Peter Heller. Fictional accounts of artists that attempt to portray the artist mind are typically either overwrought or just tremendously off-base. Even though Heller's “painter” doesn't seem like an artist I would be interested in, I find his portrayal to ring remarkably true.
What’s your favourite online resource for fun?
Right now I think it's The Oatmeal.
What’s your favourite blog?
Does Medium count?
What’s your personal motto?
Agitate * Contemplate
What makes you the most angry?
Willful ignorance—people who deny evidence, truth and the potential for positive change because of fear, hate, laziness and prejudice.
What makes you the most happy?
Rain, shade, tall grass, solving puzzles, traveling through unknown territory, food, companionship, a good pocket knife, surprises, trees, narrow roads, reading, thunder, the horizon.

Seed Broadcast Technology and seeds have long been intertwined in a complex field of relations. Throughout history plants have cycled from seed to seed and humans have interjected their desire to be a part of this process, selecting, storing, and growing out these plants year after year for millennia. This encoded technology of relations was fed with an intention towards care and resiliency to nurture not only people, but also a polyculture community of the familiar. Relatively recently this intention has shifted towards engineering botanical processes to build mono-agricultural empires, create populations of dependent passivity, and dominate the more than human.
Since 2011, SeedBroadcast has been examining these territories through performative engagements as artists, farmers, gardeners, teachers, and collective operatives, while rethinking the term agri-Culture. Project concepts and methodologies are founded in a space of the grassroots, where culture, creativity, collaboration, and agency are coupled with open source technology, seeds, agro-ecology, rhizomatic networks, and most importantly the stories that bring these all together.
Over the last year SeedBroadcast has implemented several new projects while continuing to mobilize the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station (MSSBS). New projects include SWAP, Seed Story Workshops, and the agri-Culture Journal.
[caption id="attachment_5699" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station en route via the Rocky Mountain Tour[/caption]
The Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station spent another year in partnership with regional seed libraries, farmers, gardeners, schools, and at public events recording and broadcasting seed stories, sharing resources, and pollinating open-source seed networks.
You can read more about these events at the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station blog: http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/
[caption id="attachment_5700" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Santa Fe Public Schools Special Planting Day at New Mexico Land Office where students are gathering seeds in the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station[/caption]
The 2014 regional MSSBS tour took us vertically into the high and dry Rocky Mountains with events at MountainFilm Telluride and many visits to high-altitude food producers and seed savers in Mancos, Dolores, Ridgeway, and Westcliffe, Colorado. The mantra in this beautiful and yet harsh environment is to develop adaptability through encouraging creative resiliency in plant life, seed saving, and through finding passive energy systems for extending the growing season and protecting crop failure from the weathering mood of climate change.
[caption id="attachment_5701" align="alignnone" width="1200"] SWAP grow kit, pops up and seed swaps around Iowa[/caption]
Finding ways to build collaborative partnerships beyond our region has led us to a new experimental platform called SWAP. The kick-off for this project occurred in the heart of corn country, in Iowa. Partnering with an organization called Exuberant Politics and directed by a local farmer and artist, SWAP shared the technological SeedBroadcast structure as an experimental “grow-kit” to be used locally to interrogate agri-Culture and local issues. Local community members used it to collect seed stories, bring awareness to issues of GMO, pesticide drift, and seed saving, and help inspire local open-source networks.
This year we have been expanding our processes to deepen the impact and implementation of our radical seed work. One of the ways has been to offer seed story workshops to encourage people not only to develop the practice of saving seeds but to also save the cultural heritage of that seed. As we have heard many times over “If we lose our seeds we lose our culture.” And as we are witnessing, in many parts of our world, if we lose connection to our culture we lose our land-based un-tampered-with seeds.
The stories held in each seed and the stories that each of these seeds share with us are as important to save and share as the seeds themselves. They are intertwined and inseparable.
We have held onsite seed story workshops as part of Seed School at Native Seed Search in Tucson and at various New Mexican schools. We also have been seeding seed story practices through on line conversations and exchanges with the Hummingbird Project in Cleveland, Ohio. We are hoping to expand our online action workshop presence in the future and are in the planning stages for a series of workshops at the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico and at Santa Fe Art Institute as part of the Food Justice artist residency year.
One of SeedBroadcast’s various dispersal, broadcasting and collaborative tactics is our biannual SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal. The intention of this journal is to activate a forum of exchange and intensify the discourse about the necessity for a critical shift in mainstream food growing and seed manipulation practices.
For the spring 2014 edition we received many intriguing contributions from an international call out to our curious seed story network. Among these contributions were a poem and drawing called “Radish Beets” from Whitney Richardson of Pueblo Semilla in Chicago, an article about the “Seed Diaries Project, The Art of Storytelling” from Danielle Johnson and Belle Starr in Tucson, information about the film “Open Sesame: The Story of Seeds” by Sean Kaminsky of New York, a traditional New Mexican recipe for cooking quelites from 87 year old Delvina “Vina” Armijo of Las Vegas, even the words of a contemporary seed hymn and many offerings of local wisdom from our New Mexican community.
[caption id="attachment_5703" align="alignnone" width="1025"] Bobbe Besold’s, Wests Melons, The Food Series, in Spring 2014 SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal[/caption]
This year’s spring edition was published in March, just in time for the beginning of our busiest time of the year. The time of seed exchanges, the time of sowing and honoring our seeds for the year and so the appropriate time to spread collective seed wisdom. We printed over 4,000 copies that are distributed nationally and internationally to all of our contributors, (the furthest was to New Zealand), bundles are also placed in various local sites, such as farmers markets, local libraries, added to CSA shares and available at the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station. There is a web version and agri-Culture Journal archive on our web site: http://seedbroadcast.org/SeedBroadcast/SeedBroadcast_agriCulture_Journal.html
Our autumn 2014 edition will be published at the beginning of October in time for the harvest blessings. The deadline for submissions is August 31st 2014. We encourage you to think about sending us a proposal or contribution and if you have any questions contact us at: seedbroadcast@gmail.com
You can listen to more Seed Stories at: https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast
Stay updated on our events and projects at:
http://www.seedbroadcast.org
http://seedbroadcast.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/seedshare
“Seeds are the memory of life. They have their own stories and those stories have to be told every year so they do not get forgotten.” - Isaura Andaluz.
[caption id="attachment_5704" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Drawing and listening to Seed Stories inside the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station[/caption]

Virunga When we launched Virunga at Tribeca Film Festival we did so in the knowledge that our contributor and colleague, Emmanuel de Merode, Director of Virunga National Park in eastern Congo was lying in a hospital bed in Goma – having been shot twice in the abdomen two days prior - www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa. We had managed to speak to him, and his message was clear.
“Carry on as planned - go and tell the world about Virunga”.
We had been working quietly on the film and its related campaign for over two years with the parks team in a bid to protect this stunning world heritage site, Africa’s oldest national park from, amongst other things, the work of a British oil company, SOCO International.
Oil exploration in a world heritage site is illegal in Congolese law as well as international law but this wasn’t stopping SOCO from pushing ahead with its studies and surveys in eastern Congo, working right in the heart of the park around Lake Edward, an area home to around 70,000 people in the fishing community.
Together with many brave members of these communities, the park’s own rangers and a French journalist named Melanie Gouby we had conducted an undercover investigation which had thrown up allegations of wrongdoing by SOCO’s employees, subcontractors and supporters in relation to bribery and corruption, human rights abuses by SOCO supporters, illegal entry into the park and worrying links with armed groups. As well as this, we had documented the beauty of the park, the bravery and commitment of its rangers as well the real hope it represents for the future of eastern Congo – a potential source of both peace and prosperity in a region plagued by war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZlz_4iUKBs
Tribeca would be the first time the world had seen the film and we needed it to go well in spite of our worry for Emmanuel and our fear for the rising danger to any opponents of oil on the ground. In fact, it had to go well because of this.
That was 10 weeks ago, and since then we have screened the film in parliaments, at foreign ministries, to NGOs, stakeholders, the business community, royalty and celebrities bringing Virunga’s story to anyone of influence. The noise was growing to a clamour of outrage and we were starting to get phone calls from anxious SOCO International investors. Human Rights Watch put out a shocking report on allegations of serious human rights violations in relation to SOCOagainst oil critics, adding to the mounting list of issues to address.
And then something strange happened.
Two days before the SOCO International AGM they made a statement that they had made a deal with WWF. In return for WWF dropping the OECD case they had opened against them, SOCO would leave Virunga.
It seemed too good to be true. Too easy. It may be just what it was. Was it just a clever PR move by the company (and they have the well-known Bell Pottinger on their books) to distract from the real issues facing them?
Almost immediately the reality seemed clear – deputy CEO Roger Cagle said to the Times:
“If the DRC wanted to benefit from its oil, it could even apply to Unesco to remove Virunga from the list of World Heritage Sites. It forces DRC and Unesco to come to some kind of accommodation, as has been demonstrated in many other places where they have accommodated things in world heritage sites by redrawing boundaries and by agreeing to certain activities being conducted in certain ways.”
The day after a letter from the head of SOCO DRC to the DRC Prime Minister stated:
"Following the announcements made this morning on several national and international radio stations, stating our withdrawal from oil exploration activities in Virunga National Park, we would like to inform your authority that this information is inaccurate and does not exactly reflect the spirit of the joint declaration SOCO-WWF secured through the mediation of the OECD following the WWF 's complaint against SOCO"
"We wish to clarify that as soon as Phase 1 of this exploration is completed, that is to say the seismic and geological surveys, SOCO will process and interpret the dataset and we will be able to determine mid-2015 if there are areas to be drilled so that the DRC Government can take all appropriate steps to continue or not this exploration."
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This letter was quoted in an article written by Melanie Gouby in Le Figaro. This was followed up by a public announcement in Congo along the same lines.
It seemed Virunga was ever more vulnerable – exactly the same dangers facing them but now with the world thinking the opposite. A well timed diffusion by SOCO and a small step towards the park’s borders or status as a world heritage site being challenged altogether.
So our work remains unchanged and the film team and our many partners and allies see this as crucial period for the park. We must safeguard its future properly not only from SOCO but from all oil exploration without changing its borders or moving towards a declassification of the park.
The park is not just deserving of environmental protection, it symbolises our greater struggle to manage sustainable resources in a way that will bring real, equitable and sustainable prosperity to impoverished communities in harmony with the natural world. Virunga represents the most spectacular example of good governance working hand in hand with environmental protection in a way that is genuinely bringing investment and economic stability to eastern Congo. The rangers have some of the securest jobs in the region where the average wage for most is less than a $1 a day. The parks other development programmes are raising revenue in sustainable fishing, aiming to bring an existing $38 million dollar industry to a target of $64 million within five years. And for the first time, small scale hydroelectric plants built by the park are bringing electricity to rural areas that have never had it before – a process hailed by all relevant institutions as the biggest tool to ameliorate poverty known to date.
SOCO claim to be a potential source of revenue for this region and for Congo but without outlining clear and measurable potential or explaining how this oil would benefit local communities when there are so many examples of this kind of resource extraction being solely beneficial to the few elites. Without this, it seems unfathomable that we should even consider destroying the best potential the region has to come out of poverty, and one that with the right kind of business investment will only get stronger and stronger. If that seems unlikely in eastern Congo, we need only to look at neighbouring Rwanda to see the leaps and bounds a country touched by war can make in a few short years.
This is an issue that defines our future as a species and we cannot fail to secure the right decision for Virunga and so we continue to work with Emmanuel's words in our ears, to tell Virunga's story to the world.

Generation Food Project Steve James and Raj Patel talk about Generation Food
Steve James: So, Raj, let’s start with this – how did you come to this project?
Raj Patel: I have often been asked to be a talking head in films about the food system. Those films have tended focus on the disaster that is the current way we eat, but spend less time looking at how people are fighting to change the way we eat. Also films about the food system have tended to be fairly US-centric rather than global, and that is frustrating. America’s food system is not an island, and films really ought to reflect that. The desire to see a film about the global food system that shows people fighting back is what brought me to your door Steve, but I am still baffled about why you wanted to work with someone like me.
Steve: Well in addition to being loquacious and learned, you have a good sense of humor, a compatible astrological sign…
Raj: We also both like long walks on the beach.
Steve: Yes, and even though I don’t make what tend to be called advocacy films, working together presents an opportunity to make a film that I haven’t seen, and want to see. We get to pull back the curtain on an economic system that goes largely unseen, a system that makes a profound difference about what we eat, what gets grown and who gets to make a living around the world. Along the way, in developing this story, we also got excited about including the stories of people who are pushing back against that system, and breaking its rules.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evoFFHsB3pU
Raj: What I like about this is that this isn’t where we started. The original pitch was to celebrate resistance around the world but by working together we found ourselves building on the storytelling technique and the importance of characters and drama, ending up in a place where resistance isn’t certain to succeed but is much more open-ended. This moves us both out of our comfort zones a little. For your part Steve, do you think there is a conflict between an advocacy film and a verité film?
Steve: There can be. It’s unusual for an advocacy film to follow people and situations where the outcome is uncertain and success is uncertain. At Kartemquin Films, a lot of our films have been used for advocacy, but that’s not the same thing as making an advocacy film. I’m a director, not a social media outreach person, and although there are now all kinds of people involved in outreach, that’s not what I do.
Now, I want to ask you a question. When we started out, you thought that at most you might be the narrator of the film, but now we have evolved so that one of the storytelling devices we use is to have you engage with people around the world, including worthy adversaries who don’t necessarily see the world the way you do. In some cases, they don’t even think the world food system needs fixing. How do you feel about that change, Raj?
Raj: Well, I still squirm whenever I see myself on the screen and it’s not pleasant for anyone. But it’s honest, which is how I reconcile myself to it. First, we have a complex story, and it follows that someone is telling it. You didn’t hide yourself in Hoop Dreams, and I think it makes sense for me not to hide either. Second, it fits the way we’re working together – where I’m not hiding my views on the kind of world I’d like to see and what should be in it, but that there’s nothing guaranteed about those things happening or about my being right. To be honest about that is important, and it means we can do something that we can’t do apart – a verité film that’s about advocacy. I’m with you in thinking that advocacy films can sometimes trample the truth about how hard it is to change the world, and that does no one any favours, whether you’re looking to engage in social change, or just be provocatively and thoughtfully entertained. But it’s important for me to be upfront about the fact that I don’t think capitalism is particularly terrific.
Steve: What?
Raj: I probably ought to have mentioned that before.
Steve: Despite that – I think you said it – we’re trying to marry together two things that you don’t often see in documentaries, and we’re trying to do it in a way that’s truthful, organic and enlightening, and if we do our jobs right, people will feel like, right, that made sense to me. If it works, it’ll seem easy.
[gallery columns="2" ids="5651,5650"]
Raj Patel (on left) is an award-winning author and activist. He has been featured in a range of publications, from the New Yorker to Time magazine, and his work hailed as indispensable by Michael Pollan, with whom he co-teaches at Berkeley. Raj has worked at the World Bank and the World Trade Organization and has protested against them on four continents. He is also an Utne Reader Visionary and has testified to the US Congress on the causes of the global food crisis. He is the author of the international bestseller The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy, and the critically acclaimed guide to the food system Stuffed and Starved, which have both been translated into over a dozen languages.
Steve James (on right) produced and directed Hoop Dreams, winner of every major critics prize including a Peabody and Robert F. Kennedy Award. Other films include Stevie, which won IDFA’s grand jury prize; the acclaimed miniseries The New Americans; Tribeca Grand Prize winner The War Tapes, which James produced and edited; At the Death House Door, which won numerous festival awards; No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson for ESPN’s Peabody winning “30 for 30” series; and The Interrupters, which won the Independent Spirit Award and the duPont Journalism Award among numerous others, and was the top documentary in the end of the year national critics’ polls for both IndieWire and the Village Voice. James most recent documentary on the life and career of critic Roger Ebert, Life Itself, premiered to critical acclaim at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Sadaf Rassoul Cameron's Revolution of Imagination My son graduated from Desert Academy International Baccalaureate high school yesterday. Nineteen years ago, around this time, I was fifteen and pregnant. I was living on the streets and had no idea where I was going to get my next meal…literally. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how our lives would unfold and how much hard work and grace would be required to arrive where I am today.
I have been blessed with guardian angels in my life. Those times, as a pregnant teenager living on the streets, were no exception. There was a woman who brought me a bag of groceries every couple of weeks on the corner, no questions asked. Week after week, her eyes brimmed with tears and she’d give me a solid hug. There was also our town police officer, Cecil. Once every few months he would bring me a garbage bag full of his son’s hand-me-downs and laugh as I picked through jumpers and toys. And finally, there was Juan Antonio, our city’s homeless drunk. He spent his days panhandling in his lucky jeans, talking to Jesus, and for whatever reason, he just adored me. At the end of each day, he would find me under a tree, worn with worry, but with a shit-eating grin on my face and give me his entire day’s earnings. I would beg him to keep it for himself and he would just look at me and say, "no, jita, it’s for you and the kid," and walk away giggling.
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While the majority of the world chalked me up to be just another statistical fuck up -- against all odds, as the outcast black sheep, in light of great adversity -- I experienced unparalleled kindness and compassion from the most unlikely places.
I’ve been reflecting on how graced my life has been over the last 18 years and simultaneously thinking about this topic that we are speaking to today -- Innovation and Evolution in Philanthropy. It’s been an interesting process to have both happening rattling in my mind at the same time. What does innovation in philanthropy mean in light of Jose Antonio and his coin offerings and Cecil and his hand-me-down clothes?
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What is philanthropy anyway? Philanthropy literally translates to “love of humanity." If left for me to define, I would shift “love of humanity” to a “love of the wild”. Rather than the innate separation that a love of humanity creates with the natural world, a love of the wild would honor the visceral, inextricable symbiosis between humanity and nature. When we explore evolution and innovation in the field of philanthropy, I feel that that our evolution is rooted in a return to the rememberance of that symbiotic dance and how to bring humanity and humility to our relationships with life.
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I’ve been personally challenged with the notion of “innovation” itself lately. Innovation is sexy because we are in desperate need of alternatives and creativity. However, innovation loses much of its sex appeal when it assumes that creativity and solutions rely solely on “newness." Newness can be blind to where tradition and deep wisdom are not only legitimate, but an absolute necessity to moving our planet into the direction of vibrancy. For instance, the deep wisdom of the indigenous worldview and practice is an essential piece to moving towards becoming more humane to one another and to nature. Or, just good, wholesome kindness and generosity, like that of my town drunk. Never underestimate the power of kindness, the power of the creative, the power of simply being humane. Innovation must broaden its scope to include the gems of the past, our present, and future.
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When I asked what points I should touch on today, our facilitator told me to speak about what I am most passionate about. I’m passionate about many things at the moment, but what I want to bring to this table is my passion for imagination.
I believe there is a war being waged on imagination. Systemic structures as they stand, in a post September 11th world, where a belligerent war on terror continues to be wielded in the name of security and grants permission for the government to surveil it’s citizens, has cultivated a deeply disturbing culture of fear which endangers even imagining that another world is possible. As it has been said: Transition is inevitable; Justice is not. I ask myself, how can justice be considered if we cannot even imagine what an equitable world looks like? How can we possibly thrive, if we can’t even imagine what thriving would feel like? We are in need of a revolution of imagination.
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So how does this pertain to the field of philanthropy? Well, my answer is twofold. First off, I believe as grantmakers, we have a critical duty to foster imagination at any cost. We must be willing to “take a risk” (whatever that means) to support those that are fighting to keep imagination alive -- at every front. Chilean Robin-Hood artist/activist, Francisco Tapia (Papas Fritas), just liberated $500 million worth of student loan debt by breaking into Universidad La Mar and setting blaze to actual loan contracts. Movement Generation, out of Oakland, cultivates the imagination of a healthy world through careful consideration and actual on-the-ground alternatives; offering us a window into what a truly marvellous world looks like. I believe this is the radical innovation that our times call for and that we as philanthropists must foster and encourage.
Second, I believe that there is a crisis of imagination within the field of philanthropy. This may partially due to the fact that we are operating from a place of assumed security. No matter how you cut it, there is very little security in this very fragile structure. I believe that we are at the apex of the most daunting of human circumstances -- relentless war, the institutionalizing of police and military states, the crushing of freedom of expression, and the ultimate crisis -- climate chaos. We have tipped over the tipping point. Now is not the time to play it safe. We simply do not have the time. Bold, courageous action is imperative. It is time to think outside the box -- move way outside our comfort zone.
Nabakov said: Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form. Now is the time to be valiantly curious!
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http://www.nmag.org/
http://sadafcameron.com/

Announcement of Spring 2014 Grantees Storytelling has been at the forefront of our minds this year. With our Solutions Lab crew collaborating with the Santa Fe SpeakEasy, and the upcoming launch of our Indie Philanthropy Initiative, we’re noticing that storytelling connects the dots between what challenges us, what motivates us, and what pushes great ideas out into the world.
One of the greatest assets of Kindle has always been the collection of field stories from our collaborators in our partner community. Day in and day out, we have the privilege of hearing the riveting plots of partner projects; their challenges, inspirations, and the remarkable players that make all their work possible. Sharing these stories with you is all done in the spirit of sparking the extraordinary change we all want to see in the world.
This spring, we have another remarkable roster of torchbearers to introduce. Ranging from the artistically adventurous to the scientifically steadfast—our growing community is filled with endlessly motivating organizations and individuals. To achieve their formidable goals, our partners are breaking boundaries in ways that are at once surprising, thought-provoking, and essential, paving the way for thinking and doing outside the box.
We hope you’ll celebrate the incredible work of these groups with us by taking a moment to learn more about all of them below. We can’t wait to share more details of their work with you over the coming years. Don’t forget to check back on our site to see how the narratives of these groups continue to unfold.

Branden Barber Answers the Kindle Questionnaire What do you see as the greatest challenge your community is facing?
Wealth inequity and the challenges that brings. With increasing disparity between the super rich and everyone else, resources are seen as more precious – funding good works is more challenging than I’ve ever known it to be.
What is the strongest asset of your community?
Our commitment to all life.
Who are your real-life heroes in your field?
The indigenous communities and their leaders who hold the line against development from without, and those who support them.
When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
When I take supporters into the field with partners – with people like Larry Gibson and Maria Gunnoe in West Virginia’s mountain top removal battle or with our partners in the Amazon; people like Esperanza Martinez, Natalia Green, Donald Moncoya and Don Sabino Gualinga, engaging supporters to add spirit and resources to these important arenas of environmental and social justice. There is magic that occurs when people and issues are brought together with open hearts.
What is one thing you wish the general public knew about your work?
That it feels good to serve and to support others – that generosity itself creates abundance and joy in the giver. Supporting others through one’s financial power is a wonderful, empowering and loving act. Give more!
If funding were no object, what would you do?
I’d pay off everyone’s debts, buy as much natural land as possible and put it into a conservation trust, double the salaries of the non-profit sector, keep the oil and the coal in the soil and move us to a renewable, sustainable grid, end slavery, end politics of influence, make corporations corporations, not people, ride my mountain bike more…
What’s your favourite way to procrastinate at work?
Promote our work through social media. Followed by break.com…
If you weren’t doing this kind of work, what would you be doing?
I would be a philanthropist.
Favourite moment at work?
Creating truly holy moments at fundraisers – when the clouds part and the celestial choir sings…and everyone doubles their commitment and surprises themselves. This happened at a house party in Boulder – I will never forget it.
Favourite visual artist?
Pablo Amaringo – or Alex Grey – you choose.
Favourite song?
Wish You Were Here – Sandstorm – Freedom of Choice – No One Like You
Favourite activist?
Mike Roselle – Mike Brune – Annie Leonard – Randy Hayes – Scott Parkin – Larry Gibson – Maria Gunnoe – Judy Bonds
Favourite historical figure?
John Muir
If you could give $10,000 to any organization besides your own, which would it be and why?
The Ethnobotanical Stewardship Council – because they are a new organization whose mission is to protect the integrity of the plants and people who work in harmony in the Amazon.
What do you think is the greatest social issue of our time?
Wealth inequity
What do you think is the greatest environmental issue of our time?
Climate change
How do you think we can change the world?
By practicing compassion in every moment
What book are you reading right now?
The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis
What’s your favourite online resource for fun?
Break.com
What makes you the most happy?
Love

Center for Land Use Interpretation Solar Boom: A Look at a Possible Energy Future
Some people have calculated that it would take 10,000 square miles of solar panels to produce enough electricity to meet the demands of the USA - an area the size of Massachusetts. In the desert southwest, where some military reservations are as large as some New England states, and the sun shines more than 300 days a year, the process seems to be under way.
Depicted here are six plants in the six different regions in the southwest where most of this solar boom is happening. The images were taken over a two week period in late February, 2014, for an exhibit and online resource produced by the Center for Land Use Interpretation, in Los Angeles.
Centinela Solar Energy Project, Imperial Valley, California. CLUI Photo.
Centinela is one of a few large photovoltaic power plants in the Imperial Valley, built in agricultural land, near the Mexican border, over the last three years. By the end of 2014, the Imperial Valley will produce around 1,000 megawatts of power, similar to what a large gas or coal-fired power plant produces, and what around 350,000 homes consume. This amount is produced only at peak output, of course, and when the sun is shining.
Desert Sunlight Solar Plant, Desert Center, California. CLUI Photo.
Desert Sunlight will be tied as the largest solar power plant in the world if it is built out to its expected 550 megawatts. Construction started in 2011, north of the remote Mojave town of Desert Center, and it is expected to be complete in 2015. Built by First Solar, Nextera, GE, and Sumitomo, the plant is likely to cost more than $2 billion, cover 3,800 acres, and use 8,800,000 photovoltaic panels. It is one of two large plants nearly completed along the Interstate 10 corridor, between Joshua Tree National Park and the Colorado River. Other large plants have been permitted for this area as well.
Agua Caliente Solar Project, Gila River Valley, Arizona. CLUI Photo.
Agua Caliente produces more than 250 megawatts, and is expected to produce as much as 397 megawatts when it is complete, sometime in 2014. It will have 5,200,000 photovoltaic panels, covering close to four square miles (2,400 acres). It is the westernmost of a chain of several utility-scale solar plants following the Gila River Valley, west of Phoenix, that collectively produce close to 1,000 megawatts. With expansions and new plants proposed for the region, this amount could double in a few years.
Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, Antelope Valley, California. CLUI Photo.
The first phase of the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch went online with 150 megawatts in 2013, and is expected to produce more than 230 megawatts when it is complete, sometime in 2014. The Antelope Valley, north of Los Angeles, has a dozen utility-scale solar plants fully online or soon to be, capable of supplying more than 1,100 megawatts by the end of 2014. At the eastern end of the valley are three solar thermal plants, built in the late 1980s, which until ten years ago, were the only large utility-scale solar plants in the USA.
Copper Mountain 3 Solar Plant, El Dorado Valley, Nevada. CLUI Photo.
Construction started on this 250 megawatt photovoltaic power plant in 2013, and is expected to be completed in 2015. It is located in the El Dorado Valley, south of Las Vegas, near some other, smaller solar plants that are already online. This area, south of Las Vegas, has a half dozen utility-scale solar plants under construction or online, together capable of providing close to 800 megawatts. This includes the 392 megawatt Ivanpah Solar Plant, built by BrightSource, Bechtel, NRG, and Google, which opened in 2014, just over the state line in California. At least another 1,000 megawatts of solar is planned for the area.
Topaz Solar Plant, Carrizo Plain, California. CLUI Photo.
Topaz is the larger of two major solar power plants in the remote Carrizo Plain of California, in the Temblor Range, west of Bakersfield. Construction started in 2011, and by early 2014 it was producing 360 megawatts, more than any other solar plant in the country. It is expected to be complete by the end of 2014, with over 9 million photovoltaic panels, producing 550 megawatts, likely making it the largest solar power plant in the world. The nearby California Solar Ranch produces 250 megawatts, and was completed in 2013. Together the scattered clusters of solar panels at these plants cover close to ten square miles.

Center for PostNatural History It's been two years since we first opened the doors of the Center for PostNatural History, the only museum dedicated to living things that have been shaped by human culture. When the Kindle Project contacted us nearly 4 years ago, the museum existed only as an idea and a collection. Thanks to the Kindle Project, we were able to secure a lease on a storefront space and begin the somewhat insane process of building a museum from scratch.
The idea is deceptively simple: Traditional natural history museums have largely ignored organisms domesticated by humans. These life forms, such as dogs, cattle, garden vegetables, and lab animals, have all been shaped by their relationship to human culture. Therefore, they are often left out of "natural history". As a result, traditional natural history museums have also missed out on the explosion of altered life forms emerging from public and private research facilities during the last century. The Center for PostNatural History was created to address this issue, and to pick-up where natural history leaves off.
In the 2 years since we opened our permanent space, we have collected hundreds of artifacts, greeted thousands of visitors and produced a number of exhibitions, several of which continue to travel the world. Visitors to the Center for PostNatural History in Pittsburgh enter a salon-style gallery of photographs and assorted artifacts of the postnatural. Above the entrance labeled "Hall of PostNatural History" is a life-size model of the AquaBounty™ Salmon, a genetically modified fast growing Salmon that has been awaiting FDA approval for a decade. If approved, it will be the first genetically modified animal in the human food supply.
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After passing through the curtain, the sounds of the city street fade away behind you as you enter a dimly lit gallery of small windows. The exhibits utilize diorama, taxidermy and media to tell stories about common and obscure postnatural organisms. The current exhibit in our rear gallery features our latest acquisition: an authentic taxidermied BioSteel™ Goat. This goat, named Freckles, was a part of herd of goats that were genetically altered such that they produce spider silk proteins in their milk. The milk is then refined and the spider silk extracted and wound onto spools. Spider silk is extremely strong and researchers hope that they will be able to produce much larger quantities of spider silk in this manner. Our exhibits provide an opportunity to view organisms like Freckles up close and to consider their meaning.
Since opening our permanent space, we have also produced two traveling exhibitions that are currently on tour in Europe. These exhibits examine postnatural history using specimens from our collection such as the Transgenic American Chestnut Tree, an alcoholic rat, the oddly shaped skulls of pure bred dogs, obese laboratory mice, and many more. The traveling exhibits have found homes in art galleries, conferences on issues in biotechnology, a 15th century surgical amphitheater and yes, even a natural history museum. The postnatural is a moving target and more organisms are created than we can possibly keep up with. However, as the postnatural grows, we continue to expand our collection and exhibition opportunities. In the coming year we will be producing new publications and increasing our online presence in effort to reach more people. It is thanks to Kindle that this is even possible.

NMELC's Eric Jantz Answers the Kindle Questionnaire Eric Jantz is a Staff Attorney with the non-profit New Mexico Environmental Law Center, which focuses on environmental justice advocacy. Eric’s worked at the Law Center since 2001; prior to joining its staff, he worked for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice and DNA-People’s Legal Services in the Navajo community of Crownpoint. He is lead counsel on the organization’s uranium mining and oil/gas cases.
• What do you see as the greatest challenge your community is facing?
When I talk about “our community,” I’m really talking about our clients’ communities. They’re on the front lines of environmental racism and social injustice. The biggest challenge is a really bad system of power inequity. It makes addressing issues of a clean and healthy environment difficult when decision-makers are bought and sold while the people they represent often have to struggle to feed their families.
• What is the strongest asset of your community?
Unflagging will.
• Who are your real-life heroes in your field?
I have to say, our clients and their communities. They’re the ones who have everything to lose – and often they do lose. The environmental and economic issues they’re working on can destroy families. Sometimes they become pariahs in their communities... yet they keep going, year after year after weary year.
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•When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
I don’t think that I can point to one time or place. Working within the system that we work in, my clients appreciate even small accomplishments and little steps. That’s fulfilling.
• What is the trait you most deplore of your field?
Well, I'm a lawyer, and I’m going to say that many in my profession are assholes. I don’t know a kinder way to say it.
• What is one thing you wish the general public knew about your work?
I wish the general public knew that these struggles were going on, because often they don’t.
• What’s your favourite way to procrastinate at work?
Interviews like this. And playing with the office dogs.
• If you weren’t doing this kind of work, what would you be doing?
I can’t even imagine not doing this kind of work.
• Favourite moment at work?
The minute after a hearing’s done.
• Favourite visual artist?
Kyle Baker, maybe. He’s a graphic novelist from the 1980s.
• If funding were no object, what would you do?
I’d fund a people’s non-violent liberation army, and scrap the whole system. Build a new one from scratch.
• Favourite song?
Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon.
• Favourite activist?
I hate to pick just one, because these are collective efforts.
• If you could give $10,000 to any organization besides your own, which would it be and why?
To the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment in northwestern New Mexico. They’ve done a really good job in a short amount of time of combining social justice and environmental justice activism around uranium mining and cleanup. They’ve done a lot with not many resources.
• What do you think is the greatest social issue of our time? Income disparities. Unequal economic and social power. • Favourite historical figure?
This question covers too much ground. I’ll have to get back to you.
• What did you eat for dinner last night?
Whole wheat fusili with homemade marinara sauce.
• On what occasion do you lie?
I don’t lie very regularly, I guess.
• What do you think is the greatest environmental issue of our time?
Depends on where you live. Environmental issues are mostly local, except for climate change, which could sterilize the entire planet.
• What’s your personal motto?
“Evil never sleeps.”
• What makes you the most angry?
That evil never sleeps.
• What book are you reading right now?
For All the People, a history of cooperatives in the U.S.
• What’s your favourite online resource for news?
Commondreams.org, guardian.uk and truthout.org are my three go-to sites.
• What’s your favourite online resource for fun?
Mountainbikereview.com. It’s fairly subjective, but it’s a great resource if you’re buying gear, or if you just want to see some badass videos.
• What’s your favourite blog?
Karatebyjesse.com It has a very interesting take on traditional martial arts that you don’t get in other places.
• What makes you the most happy?
Getting on my bike and going for a good, long mountain bike ride in the East Mountains outside of Albuquerque.
• How do you think we can change the world?
The only way to change it, aside from letting climate change unfold as it is likely to do – which will force the change on us – is through collective action.
www.nmelc.org www.facebook.com/NMELC Twitter: @NMELC

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Life near nuclear reactors, “Reference Man”, and the Healthy from the Start Project
by Arjun Makhijani, President of IEER
It is little appreciated that enforcement of radiation protection rules is tuned to “Reference Man" who is officially “between 20-30 years of age, weighing 70 kg [154 pounds], is 170 cm in height [5 feet 7 inches],….is a Caucasian and is a Western European or North American in habitat and custom.” [(International Commission on Radiological Protection, 1975]. And it is well established that females and children are at higher risk from radiation exposure..
Joe and Cindy Sauer lived in Illinois near two nuclear reactors (Braidwood and Dresden) from 1998-2004 with their three daughters when Sarah, their middle daughter, was diagnosed with brain cancer at seven. Her physician said it was most likely environmentally induced. They were shocked to find out about the role of Reference Man in radiation protection and became deeply involved in studying cancers in the area after learning that there had been tritium leaks at the plants and an out of court settlement made by the Illinois Attorney General’s office with the nuclear power plants for violations of the safe drinking water act. Tritium is a form of radioactive hydrogen that can bond with oxygen to create Tritiated water, which behaves as regular water once inside the body.
In their quest for answers, the Sauer family contacted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), among other agencies. The NRC told them very specifically that “Reference Man” determines permissible levels - they never said safe levels – and has not yet answered their question whether these levels are “permissible” for a seven-year-old, forty-pound girl. In fact, the NRC and EPA do not define the term “member of the public,” which is used in their regulations. The EPA has refused IEER’s request to specifically include children and women in their definition of this term. All this despite a Presidential Executive Order (E.O. 13045) explicitly calling on government agencies to pay special attention to protecting children from environmental harm because they are more sensitive.
Determined to find out what was going on, Joe Sauer, a physician, requested and finally gained access to the Illinois Department of Public Health cancer data, overcoming many hurdles. The Department had even refuse to release the data when requested by then-Senator Obama’s office on the Sauer’s behalf. Dr. Sauer’s analysis is startling, indicating that cancer incidence increased around near these two reactors after the leaks began. The family has presented its story and findings to an IEER workshop; IEER has published some of their work in Science for Democratic Action, from which this summary is taken. You can learn more about Dr. Sauer’s research on IEER’s website.
Sarah has graduated from high school and written a book. Here is what she wrote for IEER:
“When I was seven years old I was diagnosed with brain cancer. The surgery, chemo and radiation treatment were horrible. I lived in Illinois in the vicinity of the Dresden and Braidwood nuclear power plants. I along with other children became sick with cancer. My parents moved me away from the area after many people including officials in Washington DC told my parents it was not safe to live there. My parents and I have been to Washington DC to speak to various government officials and fight for the right for kids to live in a healthy environment and not to have to be exposed to low levels of radiation on a daily basis. I spoke to the National Academy of Sciences twice to remind them of who they are doing the health study for and that me and all the other kids who live(d) near nuclear power plants and got cancer are not just a statistic. Cancer may have taken many things from me but it did not take away my love for life. All of life is very precious and we need to make sure that everyone, especially the children have a safe and healthy world to grow up in.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health has yet to respond with a position on this data, initially calling it statistically insignificant, and denying a public meeting to discuss the findings. But the Sauer family has persisted and been very influential in getting the NRC to fund the National Academies to do a study on nuclear power and cancer. A feasibility report was published in 2012 and IEER’s review of that study is online. The work has now progressed to the next stage, which includes a study of cancer near several nuclear facilities.
The Sauer’s and other families with stories like theirs are why we continue to advocate for changes in how radiation protection regulations are implemented through our Healthy from the Start project.
You can watch Sarah give a presentation at the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board here. Her talk begins at 34:30.

Solutions Lab + Santa Fe SpeakEasy Event We've been longtime fans of the Santa Fe SpeakEasy and we are so excited about this new collaboration.
We can't wait to hear all the solutions stories from this year's cohort.
If you're in Santa Fe join us for this fantastic evening. All event details are also available here.

Solutions Lab Dispatch: Railyard Stewards We asked the Railyard Stewards to imagine it's the year 2050. We wanted to know how their work contributed to positive change on the planet 36 years from now.
Many Hands Restore What Was Lost: The Urban Forestry Project of the 21st Century
by the Railyard Stewards, 2014 Solutions Lab Cohort Member
Thirty-six years ago, the City of Santa Fe was in a terrible drought. The escalation of Climate Change in the region dried up water resources significantly, which in turn plagued the city and surrounding farm land with no irrigation. The southwest region of the United States was on the verge of being uninhabited, though the symbol of grassroots democracy in Santa Fe prevailed.
The Railyard Stewards (Stewards), a non-profit organization based in Santa Fe, took the lead and inspired the community. All corners of Santa Fe emerged, gardeners, plant nursery owners, local businesses, city personnel, state officials, and youth to elevate their environmental consciousness and encompass a connection to an urban forest. The Stewards built the visionary urban forest model using the Railyard Park + Plaza as their tool to motivate, encourage, and inspire the citizens of Santa Fe. Led by young people, the city of Santa Fe began to take back its natural landscape, and create a sustainable urban forest composed of drought tolerant and fruit baring trees thrat were cared for by the community.
Partnering with the Stewards, the plant nurseries served as hubs for Santa Fe citizens to purchase trees that would grow well in a high desert environment and that did not use much water. The youth, activists, gardeners, local business owners, and concerned citizens carried out a successful guerilla gardening campaign to take out invasive species such as the Siberian elm tree and replace them with native Cottonwoods, Burr Oak and Crabapple trees. Santa Fe's urban forest slowly grew and created new habitat for birds and critters, increased shaded areas and reduced water use. City personnel assisted community member to better understand which trees were best for removal and the best choices for replacements. State officials leveraged their influence to increase city budgets and tax breaks for businesses that took an active position on the urban forest development in Santa Fe and across the state. Plant nurseries and garden centers filled their inventory with species of plants and trees that would help Santa Fe conserve water. Master gardeners, local horticulturalists, public school and college environmental groups, everyday people, and children replanted the tree population which still stands today. The coalition is a testament of true grassroots democratic power shifting society to act for the benefit of everyone.
From Santa Fe, the urban forest initiative spread resembling a wildfire across the state. In Northern New Mexico, Francis Castillo y Mulert, a young leader, partnered with the Stewards during the Kindle Solutions Lab to work on eradicating Siberian elm trees from the landscape. With his energy, drive, and the skills he learned from the Stewards, Francis ignited a grassroots movement to free the water ways from the clutches of Siberian elms led by the youth of small towns in Northern New Mexico from Truchas to Española and down to Santa Fe. Today, the creeks and rivers that stretch along the rural landscape of New Mexico, are no longer encumbered with the drain of non-native plants, sucking them dry. Natural vegetation grows without competing with invasive species.
Along the Rio Grande River, which flows through New Mexico from Colorado and down through Texas, communities heard about Santa Fe's initiative to build an urban forest and joined the movement to support urban forestry and eradicate invasive, water intensive species. Community groups formed and cut down salt cedar in riparian areas and replaced with willows which thrive along the river today! The Rio Grande River has returned to its historic flows and reaches the Gulf of Mexico, as it did two centuries ago. The drought that once plagued one of the largest rivers in the United States ceases to exist.
The Urban Forest Initiative became a model for community action against environmental degradation. In the years to come, cities and communities across the United States, Mexico, Canada, Central and South America began to initiate urban forestry programs as a means to support the over burdened ecosystems across the globe.Water levels rose, natural vegetation grew back; ecological restoration inspired two continents to act in the interests of future generations.
An early member of the Urban Forest Initiative and former Program Director for the Railyard Stewards, Marc Grignon, looks into the past and has an insightful perspective.
"When I was twenty-four years old, I started to work for the Railyard Stewards at the time when the Urban Forest Initiative began," Grignon said as he sits in his rocking chair with grey hair. "If it wasn't for the Kindle Solutions Lab sponsored by the Kindle Project, the initiative would have never possessed the energy and drive to make it what it is today; an international model for the world to learn from."
Asked if anyone in particular made the initiative more impactful, Mr. Grignon states," If it was not for Francis Castillo y Mulert and the coalition comprised of community groups, individuals, business owners, the city of Santa Fe, plant nurseries, garden centers, and the local educational institutions that came together to act against an impending drought, we wouldn't be talking about a successful effort to change the natural landscape of the southwest."

Center for Genomic Gastronomy Center for Genomic Gastronomy - RECENT WORK
It has been a little less than a year since our last blog post for the Kindle Project Nexus and a lot has happened. This is a visual report of some of our most recent work, and an update on research mentioned in our last transmission.
COBALT-60 SAUCE
In last year's blog post we described the Cobalt-60 Barbecue Sauce that we were in the process of making. This project dives deeper into the untold history of mutation bred crops. Here are some images of the bottles of sauce that we produced, an image from the part that helped pull it all together, and the final installation of the work at the San Jose Museum of Art's "Around the Table" exhibition.
Our research into the history and future of mutation bred crops continues, and we are exploring the possibility of working with a research scientist to put one or more mutation-bred crops that are currently in our food system through the same rigorous screening process that new transgenic crops undergo.
Based on our literature review on the subject thus far, no one has returned to these somewhat unusual crops and used contemporary scientific tools to get a clearer understanding of how their genotypes were transformed by radiation.
We believe this research into mutation breeding research is important in order to better understand how scientific and political decisions made in the recent past (1950s - today) are effecting our current food system, and the contemporary choices we make.
As wider range of techniques are employed for transforming the genomes of food crops (selective breeding, mutation breeding, transgenic breeding, CRISPR techniques), and seed cultivars are increasingly swapped in and out of the food system at a faster rate, humanity would benefit from a more thorough and nuanced understanding of what has happened in the past.
FOOD PHREAKING
After much collaborative effort, we finally rereleased Food Phreaking issue #00 in July of 2013. Since then it was named one of Gizmodo’s and Edible Geography’s 2013 books of the year. This has meant that we are almost completely sold out of the first print edition!
A free .PDF of the book is available here, and for those people that want to hold and flip though hard copy, a few are still available for purchase here: foodphreaking.com.
As we work on Issue #1 of Food Phreaking (due out in April 2014) we continue to strike a balance between free information and beautiful book design. Both the printed books and digital copies are creative commons licensed, and we ourselves are drawing on the commons significantly in the creation of these publications. Visit www.foodphreaking.com in late April to take a look at Issue #1 “A Culinary Atlas of a Few Curious Botanical Fruits”.
PSSC LISBON
In 2013 we were commissioned to design a pop-up restaurant in the dining room of a historical palace as part of the Lisbon Architectural Triennale. After many months of planning and collaborations with Turismo de Portugal, we finally launched the restaurant with a series of 3 meals. Culinary students from three local food colleges ran the restaurant for 3 months, and we were able to make connections with interesting producers and food thinkers throughout Portugal during the run of the restaurant.
THE CENTER TURNS 3
Finally, a video that summarizes our first 3 years of activity (2010 - 2013). The video gives a comprehensive overview of all of our activities for the last three years:
This video was used to apply for the VIDA 15.0: Art & Artificial Life awards. The Center was selected as the People’s Choice awardee. This meant that we were able to travel to Madrid, Spain in March of this year, and install a new archival library of all of our work to date. The library was conceived as a shipping container that can be sent and pop up any where in the world, and it is currently looking for it’s next home.
The container was fabricated in collaboration with Matthew Williams, a craftsperson in Portland, Oregon.

Other Worlds: Harvesting Justice We know you care about what you eat, how it was produced, and who was harmed or who benefited in the process. Everywhere, people like you are reclaiming the food system from multinational agribusiness and putting it back in the hands of small farmers, low-income families, farmworkers, guardians of Native culture, and health-conscious communities. Many of these stories are documented in our new 140-page book, Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agricultural Systems in the Americas. The result of five years of research and interviews from throughout the hemisphere, the book describes strategies to achieve food justice and food sovereignty. An appendix and popular education curriculum offer hundreds of concrete ways to learn more and get involved.
Winona LaDuke, Anishinaabe environmentalist, said, “If our people want to eat twenty years from now, we will need food justice. The stories and the vision shared in Harvesting Justice inspire and inform that work. I’m grateful for the storytellers and those whose hands are on the earth.”
You can download a free pdf of Harvesting Justice here and read more about it here.
The book is a part of Other Worlds’ Harvesting Justice project, which promotes and defends land, water, small-scale agriculture, food sovereignty, and land-based and indigenous peoples. We work with groups in the global South that are at the cutting edge of the food sovereignty movement, and carry their stories to the US. We help make their models and strategies available to groups engaged in food systems change work. And we work to educate the general public in the US, especially through inspiring stories, to catalyze activism.
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Crowdfunding Campaign
We want to send our book for free to CSAs, schools, community centers, libraries, and activists across the country. Providing this resource to those at the frontlines, and inspiring and educating others who are just joining in, are ways to honor and grow the just food and agriculture movement. Donations from $10 up receive great perks, including copies of Harvesting Justice for yourself, our newest book Fault Lines: Views Across Haiti’s Divide, heirloom seed packets, and shout-outs on our social media sites! View our Harvesting Justice video and support our crowdfunding campaign here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/harvesting-justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrPP3dRRFGg

High Mayhem Webcasting as a Means to Expand Community
by Carlos Santistevan
As a working musician and fan I have seen countless musical legends play to rooms that number fewer than 20 audience members. No, this was not in Santa Fe, home of High Mayhem Emerging Arts, but in cities such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. If artists in these musical cities with huge populations are unable to fill rooms, how are artists in a city the size of Santa Fe supposed to? It is indeed a challenging dilemma.
Since our inception, High Mayhem has attempted to use the Internet as a means to gain broader exposure of our art and curations. In the past we have broadcast live audio of musical performances from both our studio and festivals. We have used our site to sell CD’s and merchandise. In addition, we have utilized services such as CD Baby, Soundcloud, and bandcamp to digitally distribute our recorded music to the broader Internet community. While these are nice resources they are often difficult to sift through to find relevant art and music when there is such an over-representation of canned and contrived music.
We realize that much of the most significant music that a musician can create is in front of a live, breathing audience, where experiences are shared and true moments of human connection and understanding can occur. Beginning two years ago, we began to ask ourselves if it was possible to broaden the audience of a musical performance through live audio and video broadcast of live performances. Due to the importance of “the moment” of the art we create, we felt it imperative that our broadcasts be live and not pre-recorded. Being that we are a recording studio and strive to create the best quality of production for both artists and audience alike, we knew that we would not be satisfied if we were not delivering professional audio and video in order to make people truly feel they were connected with the artists’ performance.
We proposed the idea to Kindle Project that we would like to develop a system to do live webcasts of events from our studio on the Internet. Kindle Project enthusiastically embraced the idea and funded us to develop said system. At the time of funding, we knew very little about video. We figured, “Hell, we know audio up and down, video is just cameras instead of microphones.” Boy, were we surprised. You see, audio is nice because really there are just a couple formats and types of connections. Everyone records audio in .wav or .aiff and the resolutions and bit rates and pretty standard and easily interchangeable. Cables only number a few types and are generally easy to change with adaptors. This is not the case with video. There are so many formats, standards, file types, resolutions, frame rates, and connections each with their own advantages and disadvantages. In short we were a little over our head.
As we continued to research, we found that every system we developed either had inherent flaws, or would prove too costly to afford. We consulted with countless IT and video experts and none of them really had a firm grip on how to do what we were hoping to achieve. Through systematic and sustained effort we were eventually able to design a system that worked for our budget and us. We continued to run into numerous issues of audio sync with video, how to broadcast and host the service, and how to pay for an endeavor whose costs began to exceed allotted funds. We broadcast privately as we tweaked out the system, as we didn’t want to officially broadcast until we knew it was up to our standards.
After over a year of trial and error, we officially broadcast our first show with quality video, exceptional audio, and a nice smooth uninterrupted stream. It was amazing! We were elated by the newfound capabilities and means to deliver art across the state, country, and even the world using the Internet. Since we have begun broadcasting our digital audience has continued to grow. Right now we are more than doubling our live audience size through webcasting. We are able to bring live music to friends and supporters in distant lands. It’s an amazing feeling to step off stage and have a friend or relative in far off lands send an immediate text after you walked off the stage complimenting you on your performance. Ironically, the largest digital audience we have gotten so far was on a night of a snowstorm in Santa Fe. We were excited to find that when weather is bad and audiences are generally smaller, that we actually increased our digital audience. We were snowed in at our studio broadcasting incredible music while a large audience was at home in their warm jammies by the fire.
We have found a means to broaden our community and audience beyond Santa Fe using live webcasting. Recently, we have been in discussion with SOMA-FM an Internet radio station based out of San Francisco, CA about having them simulcast our shows to their well-established audience. Other organizations such as the Santa Fe University of Art and Design and OTR Studios run by Cookie Marenco have watched our webcasts and been amazed at the way we have expanded our audience. We are currently serving as consultants to these organizations as they work towards designing their own webcasting systems. We very much see this as the future of live performance and are excited at the opportunity we have developed to share our art worldwide and in real time. Thanks Kindle Project for your support! You help sparks of imagination reach fruition. Live streams and schedules can be found at www.highmayhem.org/livestream. And while you are there, don’t hesitate to click on the donate button to help us help bring you some great art!
Carlos Santistevan is the Director/co-founder and audio engineer at High Mayhem Emerging Arts. For the past 20 years he has presented countless artistic events to the New Mexico arts communities. His philosophies of art have been equally influenced by both the punk rock Do-It-Yourself approach and the improvisational jazz aesthetic. He has served as a bassist for some of NM’s most important creative music ensembles including The Late Severa Wires, iNK oN pAPER, Out of Context, A. Barnhouse and Taiji Pole. As an educator he has taught classes, workshops, and lecture demonstrations to a broad range to artists and students.
https://soundcloud.com/highmayhem/sets/high-mayhem-sampler

Sins Invalid David Langstaff, intern at the Catalyst Project, interviews Leroy Moore and Patty Berne, co-founders of Sins Invalid, a disability justice based performance project focusing on the intersections of embodiment, disability and sexuality.
Q: How does Sins Invalid's emphasis on "disability justice" differ from a more mainstream organization that advocates for "disability rights"?
PB: I want to say on the front end that the work of disability justice builds on the work that the disability rights movement has done, we wouldn’t be at a place where we could be discussing disability justice were it not for the gains of the disability rights movement in codifying rights for people with disabilities. At the same time, that movement left us with cliffhangers – (laughs) that’s the way I like to think about it. Disability justice contextualizes disability in multiple people’s lived experiences, in that disability is not a phenomenon that happens to “others” who then become “people with “disabilities”. People with disabilities are often thought about as a distinct “sector,” as though there aren’t people of color with disabilities, as though there aren’t queer people with disabilities, as though economic justice were not a disability issue, for example. We understand disability experience to cut across every way of being, and necessarily needs to be integrated into all social justice work – in the same way that you can’t organize workers without acknowledging the ways in which immigrant workers are particularly impacted by capitalism or by nationalism.
Disability justice takes the dominant understanding of disability as both a medical issue and as a social marker, and shifts “disablement” into something that generates from the broader social body’s understanding of people who fall into a “non-normative” framework, and then contextualizes that shift within a social justice analysis.
Q: Sins Invalid's cultural work has been especially focused on challenging the normative paradigms of sexuality created by an ableist society, offering a vision of sexuality which honors the beautiful multiplicity of bodies and desires which ableism tries to erase. Why this emphasis on sexuality?
LM: For one reason, sexuality is a really huge part of the human experience – it’s a part of all of our experiences – and because of the history of ableism in this country, sexuality isn’t really seen when you talk about people with disabilities, and that’s a totally sad situation. Sins Invalid really builds our performance art and our political education around sexuality, because many people with disabilities are prevented from expressing our sexuality in our daily lives, and it shouldn’t be that way.
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PB: Yeah, I agree. I think that one of the ways that people are “othered”, one of the primary mechanisms, is by dehumanizing a community, and one of the things that’s most painful about disability oppression is the neutering of people with disabilities. We aren’t seeing ourselves reflected anywhere in positive lights, and we see this in relationships – we’re not seen as people who are good partners, as people who are good parents, as people who are living our lives as robust people…
I think that by reclaiming our bodies, our sexualities and our joys, including our sexuality, we give a huge pushback against an ableist framework…
You know, there’s a huge amount of sexual violence against people with disabilities, the statistics are as high as 70% of people with disabilities are sexually assaulted before the age of 18 – so when we’re objectified and “othered”, when our bodies have been used against us, it’s a huge reclamation of ourselves to fully inhabit our bodies, including our sexualities. Self-determination over our sexualities is a cornerstone of self-determination over our bodies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gjP0Wtlrpg
Q: Can you tell us more about the recently released documentary, "Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility”?
LM: Oh my god, the film is really cool, so hot, so moving, so political – the film talks about our performance work, but also talks about how our bodies have been looked upon, talks about our sexualities and how the public views them. It centers the beautiful Sins Invalid performances that really flip the popular viewpoint around sexuality and disability. So the film, for me, gives a window into what sexuality and disability can look like when people with disabilities have control of our own media – a film that really talks about our politics and talks about our wants…
Q: Most people know Sins Invalid through your cultural work, but you've also been engaged in leadership development, political education, and organizing for disability justice. Could you tell us a bit more about these areas of work?
PB: We have a cultural work program – the film, the artists-in-residence program, the performance workshops, and the semi-annual performances – but we also have a movement-building component, where we work with different organizations to help build capacity around both understanding disability justice as a framework and also to develop practices of disability justice that are appropriate for them organizationally…to increase their capacity to deconstruct disability as a fixed concept, but also to have a deeper understanding of how a disability justice lens can open up aspects of their work that they may not have thought of before – in terms of their constituencies, in terms of their practices, in terms of their framing.
Q: Looking back on your experiences, what advice might you give to a young, disabled artist or activist who is passionate about working towards disability justice?
LM: I would say try to get grounded in who you are. I think, speaking for myself, that’s what led me to getting politically involved – strong self-knowledge, knowing that my body, my human rights, my culture, my history, my art, my writing, can have a voice and impact people beyond me, can create community…So be grounded in yourself, and be grounded in people that can push you. I think that’s another lack I see within the disability rights movement – that they want to feel comfortable, and comfortable, for me, doesn’t equal challenging yourself, really being open to what you don’t know, what you need to know. So, yeah, being comfortable in your own shoes lets you be grounded in people that can push you to where you couldn’t go alone.
Leroy Moore Jr. is a Co-founder and Community Relations Director of Sins Invalid and the creator of Krip-Hop Nation, a network of Hip-Hop artists with disabilities and other disabled musicians from around the world. He shares his perspective on identity, race & disability for international audiences.
Patty Berne is a Co-Founder and Director of Sins Invalid. Her background includes community organizing within the Haitian diaspora and advocating for LGBTQI community and disability rights perspectives within the field of reproductive and genetic technologies and offering mental health support to survivors of violence.

Cry You One One of the first steps in creating Cry You One, a digital media platform and immersive outdoor performance set at the edge of Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands, was choosing the location from which we would generate, grow and present our project.
We determined early on that we wanted to work in St. Bernard Parish. Though one member of our team has deep familial roots in St. Bernard and another of us works at Nunez Community College, most of us live and work inside New Orleans.
St. Bernard Parish is at the front lines of coastal land loss, and it has also been one of the areas hardest hit by hurricanes in recent years. During Hurricane Katrina, it was the site of one of the largest on-land oil spills in U.S. history, and it was the only Parish to be 100 percent destroyed by that storm.
We chose to research and build our performance in this area to embed our efforts more deeply into the work being done by the people most directly impacted by subsidence and coastal erosion. Working in St. Bernard also helps us call the attention of New Orleanians to the parish next door, a place which often bares the brunt of environmental trauma that New Orleans has been comparatively protected from.
Our journey led us to the 40 Arpent Canal near the E.J. Gore Pumping station, with the imperiled Central Wetlands as the backdrop for our work. The location of our performance also abuts the Los Islenos Culture and Heritage Society, who quickly became one of our first and deepest community partners, offering us great generosity in the use of their space and invitations to their gatherings, as well as a deep history of the land and the people who have known it. The Islenos are descendants of Spanish Canary Islanders who immigrated to Louisiana in the late 18th century. Many Islenos settled on Delacroix Island, an area of St. Bernard parish that has all but disappeared over the last 70 years.
Through our connection with the Islenos Society, we met Celie Robin, who moved from New Orleans to St. Bernard as a young woman, and has worked as a shrimper and traiteur (a traditional healer). Mrs. Robin is one of the folks featured in the digital media component of the Cry You One project.
Beyond sharing information about the performance, our website serves as a platform where the wisdom of people’s stories can help educate and inspire people to get involved in the movement to save coastal Louisiana. In this clip, Mrs. Robin talks about her own environmental activism and what needs to be done to save the state's coastline.
https://vimeo.com/76176694

Solutions Lab Dispatch: Reunity Resources Reunity Resources and Kindle Project's Solutions Lab
by Juliana Ciano
Reunity Resources is a Santa Fe-based non-profit with a mission to reunite our waste streams with value for our community.
For three years, we have been recycling used cooking oil from more than 60 local restaurants and converting it into biodiesel—the lowest carbon impact fuel. We then re-distribute local biodiesel throughout Northern New Mexico, creating a closed loop system.
After a year of advocacy, we have partnered with The City of Santa Fe Environmental Services Division to make a big impact with this program. We will be collecting and sharing data with the City to show the value of food scraps collection to our community and environment.
For many of you, composting is common: it’s a link between cooking, gardening, nourishing yourself and supporting the health of our planet. It’s a sensible ancient practice that is as necessary and inspiring now as it ever has been.
As individuals, we create an average ¾ of a pound food scraps daily, depending on what and how we eat. This may yield several wheelbarrows of compost in our summer season.
As the City of Santa Fe, we generate about 50,000 pounds of food scraps DAILY which could yield thousands of cubic yards of compost for our farms, gardens, parks and highway medians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEmIIJ_e6e0
40% of food in the U.S. goes UNEATEN. It is lost between farm and fork…trimmed off in processing facilities, spoiled during storage, damaged during distribution, and picked over in retail. Then it is trimmed, picked over and discarded again according to professional food service industry standards.
Most of this food ends up buried in landfills, where it creates high quantities of planet-warming methane (methane traps 21 times more heat than CO2). Uneaten food is the single largest component of municipal solid waste!
If FoodScrapsInLandfills was a country of its own, it would the world’s 3rd highest emitter of greenhouse gases!
We can make a big impact by uniting with businesses and government to increase efficiency in our food systems and compost the waste that does occur.
Here in Santa Fe, local non-profit Reunity Resources has advocated with the City to be permitted to launch a commercial composting program to collect food scraps from local businesses. However, there is no City funding for the program.
Reunity Resources will begin picking up the non-repurposable food scraps from a pilot size of 30 commercial clients at the end of March. Reunity will build program logistics and collect data for expanding composting endeavors in Northern New Mexico. Reunity will also be working with local food banks to ensure the maximum amount of edible food is used to feed people.
At its pilot size, the program will divert up to 2,000,000 pounds of food scraps from the landfill in its first year of operation. That is enough organic material to create a pile of apple cores, red chiles, moldy bread and rotten lettuce leaves as high as Mount Everest!
We are taking the steps toward large scale zero waste reality. Less than 30% of what ends up in our landfills actually belongs there. Of the 70% that does NOT belong there, at least a quarter is COMPOSTABLE.
U.S. soil is currently eroding at 17 times the rate at which it forms: We need nutrient-rich compost to rejuvenate our exhausted soils and grow healthier food! Compost replaces the need for chemical fertilizers, retains moisture, and provides nutrients for healthy plant growth.
Now is the time---first collections are slated for the end of March—mere weeks away! Want to join us? We need your help! We are raising seed funds, spreading the word, designing educational materials, creating logistical systems and contracting with clients. Please contact us at (505) 629-0836 or online at www.reunityresources.com.
It’s all really cool, and it’s all really happening.
The Solutions Lab is an exciting experience for us, and it arrived at such an interesting time in our organization’s growth. We are pedal-to-the-metal with our commercial composting pilot program launch---it’s in the phase of logistics, nuts and bolts, and practicalities. Yet, we are communing with others to begin carving away the dross of a Raw Idea (SoLab stipulation: brand new endeavor, not yet underway…) We are dancing between the world of lists and tasks, and the world of ideas and dreams.
It’s exciting for us, because the compost program was an idea and dream 3 years ago. 2 years ago. And even 1 year ago when we first heard the City Environmental Services Department say “Great idea. But, NO, you can’t do it.”
We’re living the trajectory of Raw Idea to Reality…which makes it all the more exciting to be in the process of developing a new idea while making a past ‘new’ idea a reality! Steadfastness!
I’m procrastinating talking about what the Raw Idea is. It’s true. You caught me!
I utterly failed (whatever that means...) at articulating the idea our session a couple weeks ago, as it is, you know, a Raw Idea. I barely know what it is, much less how to articulate it.
That’s what the Lab is for, that’s what the next year or three of twists and turns are for, to forge the idea into its articulate-able form.
An effort, risking failure again (why do we have to keep risking that again and again??) Reunity’s focus is creating local energy sovereignty and food security by building closed-loop systems that turn local waste into fuel, soil, heat, and electricity. Our focus has been commercial-scale work, because the impact can be so big so quickly. We’d like to harness the power and excitement of individuals by creating a cooperative-model program wherein neighborhood-based groups have a fun, inspiring framework to share sustainable practices and data to track their overall impact.
On a municipal level, we would also create infrastructure such as an anaerobic digestion facility and off-site solar panels for residents who could not put them on their properties. Members would choose a level of participation on the front end for a community energy exchange credit later.

Movement Generation Movement Generation is bridging the gap between our current social movement strategies and the scale of the unfolding ecological crisis. Our mission is to help build a vibrant and pro-active movement for ecological justice in the U.S. MG’s leadership and support is sparking transformative actions and campaigns in urban communities of color across the country.
If politics is the art of what's possible, let's use art to expand those possibilities…
Conservative proponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline say that it would create thousands of jobs. But in a project fueling so many environmental and community concerns, what types of jobs would it really create? Combining the grassroots movements of Richmond, CA with hilarious satire straight out of the Daily Show, "Keystone XL has a Job for You!" is a comedic twist on one of the most serious issues of our time.
http://youtu.be/g4YUVmYBYlA
[caption id="attachment_5380" align="alignright" width="214"] Josh Healey – Movement Generation Culture Shift Fellow – Creator of the Keystone XL video above.[/caption]
Josh is an award-winning writer, performer, and creative activist. Fusing his distinct storytelling style with a subversive humor and fiery love for justice, Healey is a regular performer on NPR’s Snap Judgment. He has performed and led workshops at UC-Berkeley, Harvard, and over 200 colleges, high schools, and conferences across the country. He is the former program director for Youth Speaks, and a recent recipient of the Mario Savio Young Activist Award. Healey also helped coordinate two national projects that combined creative storytelling and environmental activism: Life is Living, and Brave New Voices: Speak Green.
www.ourpowercampaign.org
www.movementgeneration.org

New Economy Coalition
Our dream is to help catalyze a just transition to a new economy that is grounded in racial and economic justice and that enables both thriving communities and ecological health. The New Economy Coalition team has filled out the Kindle Questionnaire together. To learn more about Mike, Eli, Esteban, Emma, Emily, Nicholas, and Rene click here.
• What do you see as the greatest challenge your community is facing?
All of us come from communities that are struggling, in different ways, with the problems of trying to live well in the context of a deeply unequal, unfair, and unsustainable economy. That said, we’re also part of a community of organizers, innovators, and cooperators who are trying to figure out smarter, more compassionate, more fulfilling ways to organize economic life. (Mike)
• What is the strongest asset of your community?
While we still have work to do to be fully representative of the communities on the frontlines of this movement, I think our strongest asset is the growing diversity of perspectives, strategies, and focus areas represented in the Coalition. (Eli)
• Who are your real-life heroes in your field?
Grace Lee Boggs, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and Jessica Gordon-Nembhard (Esteban)
• When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
In Boone, NC, during a student-led summit supported by our Campus Network Program, a participant told me that he and his peers were leaving “hungry to relearn how to care about one another, and to relearn how to be a community.” It’s incredibly beautiful to see people enter the new economy space and find a home for the things they care about most. (Emma)
• What is one thing you wish the general public knew about your work?
A lot of the practices that we label as “new economy” work aren’t “new” at all. (Emma)
Economic democracy takes a lot of engaged-effort and integrity but it’s so rewarding and it builds community in unanticipated ways. (Esteban)
• If funding were no object, what would you do?
Boost economic development and community land-trusts, while re-granting money to establish revolving loan funds administered democratically in communities around North America. (Esteban)
• If you weren’t doing this kind of work, what would you be doing?
Organizer-priest in a multi-racial congregation. (Nicholas)
Tuning pianos. (Rene)
• Favourite moment at work?
Listening to stories from the first year Campus Network projects at the reRoute conference (Nicholas)
• Favourite visual artist?
James Turrell (Rene)
Kehinde Wiley (Esteban)
• Favourite song?
‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’. It only took one recent listen for me to realize that it wasn’t my joke favorite song, but that it was in fact my actual favorite song. (Emma)
“Concerto No. 1 in D minor for Harpsichord” J.S. Bach… does that count? If not, current favorite song “Soca Del Eclipse” El Guincho (Rene)
“26 is Dancier than 4” its written in a crazy time-signature and it really is dancy! (Esteban)
• Favourite activist?
Nina Wilson, Sheelah Mclean, Sylvia McAdam, and Jessica Gordon, founders of the Idle No More movement in Canada fighting for Indigenous sovereignty, democracy, environmental protection and more. (Emily)
Aaron Swartz. Even after his death, his work continues on in his brilliant unfinished projects. (Rene)
• Favourite historical figure?
Emma Goldman and the Black Jacobins of France and Haïti then Saint Domingue (Esteban)
Harriet Tubman (Eli)
Lydia Mendoza (Rene)
• What did you eat for dinner last night?
Huevos rancheros and beer. It was a weird day… (Mike)
Leftovers from a huge Chinese New Year meal we had over the weekend (celebrating one week early). (Emily)
• If you could give $10,000 to any organization besides your own, which would it be and why?
PICO--their faith-based organizing work is blazing all kinds of trails, within congregations and the larger world. (Nicholas)
I think a $10,000 donation to Strike Debt’s Rolling Jubilee would have a meaningful impact - immediately affecting people’s lives, and I love the powerful, system-critiquing premise of it. (Emily)
City Life/Vida Urbana. They fight home evictions. (Rene)
The Worcester Roots Project. They are a worker co-op incubator for teenagers in a post-industrial working class city. (Esteban)
• What do you think is the greatest environmental issue of our time?
I think it’s hard to separate out the major ecological crises of our time -- ocean acidification, soil erosion and degradation, biodiversity loss, climate change -- they are all interconnected and also connected to the social crises of inequality and racism. (Emily)
Our global economic system depends on endless growth and extraction -- both of ecological resources and social ones -- exploiting people, communities, and the ecosystems we depend on. The climate crisis is one of its many symptoms. (Eli)
• How do you think we can change the world?
The change is happening- brave, committed, creative people are resisting an unjust and unsustainable economy, and building and maintaining new economic systems that serve their communities far better than the mainstream economy has. The change will accelerate as these projects continue to work in coalition- amplifying each others’ voices, rallying around shared values, and pushing, united, for better systems on a much larger scale. (Emma)
• What book are you reading right now?
Oppose and Propose by Andrew Cornell (Mike)
EcoMind by Frances Moore Lappe (Emily)
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuña (Rene)
The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Esteban)
• What’s your personal motto?
Pete Seeger once said “The key to the future of the world is finding optimistic stories and letting them be known.” I only heard that today but I think it sums up what we try and do quite well. (Mike)
“Ni modo”. It sort of means “stuff happens.” Accept and internalize what has happened and work from there. (Rene)
• What makes you the most angry?
The disempowerment of youth and young adults, particularly when we’re the ones inheriting the huge (economic, ecological) mess we’ve been left with. The cynical way in which the “American Dream” is marshalled to conceal this fact. (Nicholas)
Movements with unchecked racism, sexism, classism, etc.. (Rene)
• What makes you the most happy?
Speculative Fiction, imagining possibilities, music, roller coasters, and lunch specials. (Esteban)
Happiness comes from within… and a good beer. (Rene)

Arianne Shaffer Answers the Kindle Questionnaire • What do you see as the greatest challenge your community is facing?
I live in Canada. I see two challenges: apathy and distractions. And right now, -50 degrees Celsius.
• What is the strongest asset of your community?
Collaboration. People in Toronto are wildly collaborative and creative. Sometime I misconstrue flirting as networking in this active start-up city. It’s a problem.
• Who are your real-life heroes in your field?
I know it may sound cheesy, but Sadaf and Cate (Kindle’s co-founders) are some of the most intelligent and incredibly creative women I have ever met. They guided me into this field of Indie Philanthropy and showed me how taking risks on people and projects is one small but important way of changing the world.
• When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
As Communications Director, I curate our Nexus page, which features the stories and projects of our grantees. I am most fulfilled when I see how sharing grantee stories sparks inspiration, ideas, collaborations and excitement in the broad Kindle community. I also love it when my mom reads a grantee story and says things like, “Wow, it’s so cool that Kindle supports whistleblowers like John Bolenbaugh! I didn’t know about him and I just sent along his feature to my friends.” Highly satisfying.
• What is the trait you most deplore of your field?
Fear. Fear of scarcity, which is an understandable fear that I share with many. Fear of taking risks. Fear of change. And, fear of not having 'measurable results'.
• What is one thing you wish the general public knew about your work?
Kindle Project has no association whatsoever to the Kindle eReader and that we do not provide those to the public. I also wish for the general public to know about all of our grantees and how incredibly important their work is. Explore them all here!
• If funding were no object, what would you do?
I would fly all of our grantees from all over the world to a massive treehouse in the jungle for a few days of cooking, scheming, art-making, collaboration and laughter.
• What’s your favourite way to procrastinate at work?
Sadaf and I sometimes get into a YouTube hole that often involves videos of very cute or bizarre animals. There’s a lot of laugher. And this past year, the mayor of my city, the champ Rob Ford himself, provided us with countess hours of procrastinating laughter. Thanks buddy.
• If you weren’t doing this kind of work, what would you be doing?
I would be learning how to grow my own food. I’d be writing one-woman shows and storytelling performances. I’d like to live out my dream of being in a Lebanese music video. I’d like to win backgammon every time I play. I would also love to return one day to my work as a hospital chaplain, and doing leadership work with teenage girls. Perhaps more likely, and most satisfyingly, I'd be scheming and shaking things up with Sadaf in whatever ways we could.
• Favourite moment at work?
Announcing our Makers Muse recipients and grantee every year. It’s the most exiting moment for me, each time.
• Favourite visual artist?
Right now, I’m digging our Makers Muse recipients a lot! I also just discovered that there’s someone in Paris who is making tiny ceramic mice and placing them around the city. I don’t know who that is, but I’m charmed. One more, the just launched photography site by our very own Sadaf. Click here and take the rest of the day off to enjoy...
• Favourite song?
Confession - this is the most played song on my computer. Now you know.
• Favourite historical figure?
Right now, M.F.K. Fisher.
• What did you eat for dinner last night?
Beets, arugula, brussel sprouts, bread, cheese, olives and walnuts. Oh, and one piece of chocolate and a couple tangerines.
• If you could give $10,000 to any organization besides your own, which would it be and why?
I’m thinking so much about the cold right now due to the climate crisis wreaking it’s havoc in the Northeast, so I think I would give it to Covenant House Toronto. It’s a homeless shelter for youth that I used to work with when I was teenager.
• On what occasion do you lie?
Sometimes I say I’m going to the gym, but just end up going to brunch instead. I walk to brunch in gym clothes so it feels like less of a lie.
• What do you think is the greatest social issue of our time?
Too many screens, not enough talking in person. The continued enormous issue of women’s right and lack thereof in almost every part of the world.
• What do you think is the greatest environmental issue of our time?
Climate change—and more importantly those that deny it.
• How do you think we can change the world?
Kindness. Bold, in-your-face kindness.
• What book are you reading right now?
Provence 1970. Telling you this is sharing a secret. I’m a huge dork when it comes to food literature. It tells the story of M.F.K Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard and a handful of other great American food icons who met in Provence in December 1970. Reading their letters to each other, the details of their shared meals and what it was like to travel by boat has me enchanted.
• What’s your favourite online resource for news?
Media Co-op
• What’s your favourite online resource for fun?
themoth.org
• What’s your favourite blog?
I like Sam Mullins writing a lot. And, while I'm not really into sports except for during hockey play-offs season, I do love reading The Barnstormer - an incredible literary sports journal that makes me think about sports in a whole new way.
• What’s your personal motto?
Do. Or do not. There is no try - Yoda
• What makes you the most angry?
Homophobia, bottled water, and those ridiculous coffee pods.
• What makes you the most happy?
Making people laugh really hard, the tiny sections of a tangerine, and sharing a pomegranate with a family of chickens.
Arianne Shaffer has been working with Kindle Project for over three years. You can read all about her professional world here. And to read about her work outside of Kindle in the world of storytelling and love letters click away...

May First/People Link
May First/People-Link is a membership organization that redefines the concept of “Internet Hosting Service” in a collective, progressive and collaborative way. It is the largest membership Internet organization in the Americas and one of the few that is organized in both the United States and Mexico. It’s a fully bi-lingual organization and fully democratic — the major decisions about the organization are made by its members and carried out by a Leadership Committee that is member-elected. Besides members’ sharing of Internet resources like web-hosting and email, MF/PL participates in many coalitions in the U.S. and world-wide (including the U.S. Social Forum where it has long played a leading role). In this video, MF/PL founder and current LC member Alfredo Lopez explains what the organization is all about and why people should join it.
The greatest dream of May First/People link:
That the left of the Americas develop and mobilize around a program that effectively uses the Internet, protects its independence and freedom, and allows the technology to bring us together more effectively and powerfully.

Lorna Simpson The past year has been really interesting with shows and projects and books (listed just below) coming to fruition.
Lorna Simpson
By Joan Simon
With contributions by Naomi Beckwith, Marta Gili, Thomas Lax and Elvan
Lorna Simpson: Works on Paper
By Heidi Zuckerman
With contributions by Hilton Als, Connie Butler and Franklyn Sirmans
The studio has been in a chaotic whirlwind state that I am only now clearing and organizing the studio to begin to think about and map out upcoming work.
There is a large survey exhibition of my work currently on view at the Haus der Kunst will be traveling to the Baltic this coming Spring 2014.
Being in this moment of thinking about new work the best thing for me is that I don’t make check lists or attach myself to any specific thing and allow myself to intuitively begin to engage ideas.
Recently, so much of the time I am either in production for videos or projects or making things that require an organizational framework to fulfill ideas and bring things to fruition. Right now I am taking the time to shift away from a structured task oriented way of thinking to just thinking about new and different directions.
The two must have books on my nightstand that I have just started reading are:
WHITE GIRLS, by Hilton Als
FURIOUS COOL Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him, by David Henry and Joe Henry
http://vimeo.com/83861442
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Nao Bustamante My upcoming project will time-travel the role of women in combat, by means of performance, wearable sculpture, and video, bringing history into a contemporary context by creating a revisionist reenactment, embedded in an installation. I am currently researching Zapatistas or soldaderas, the women soldiers of the Mexican Revolution. My illustration of women soldiers (fighting as women, not gendered as men) in historical wartime provides a framework to consider our current psychological framing of war and the various challenges that contemporary women soldiers confront.
Test footage for upcoming project, Tierra y Libertad can be viewed below.
www.naobustamante.com
www.facebook.com/naobustamante
https://vimeo.com/54191803
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Trevor Paglen Have you ever thought about sending art into space to attach itself to a satellite to last for billions of years?
Have you ever thought about creating a technology that allows you to photograph the most remote areas in the United States, invisible to the human eye, and also housing classified military bases?
Have you ever thought about what the signature of a ‘missing person’ sent to a CIA operated prison looks like?
Well, Trevor Paglen has.
He’s not only thought about all of these things, (and much more, of course), but he has made incredible works of art from these ideas. He is a mastermind whose works blur lines between haunting and beautiful, perplexing and journalistic. Below is a sampling of some of his work. Enjoy and read more about him and his projects here.
http://vimeo.com/53655801
[gallery ids="5255,5257,5256,5254,5253,5252,5251"]

Announcement of Fall 2013 Grantees This year has been a big one for us at Kindle Project. We shared our roots with the world, started new programs and continued to scour our networks for incredible, new, bizarre and inspiring projects. With the new grantees that came into our horizon, there are new relationships that we’re eager to explore. Furthermore, the ties with our existing grantees in this cycle have deepened this past year as we’ve been blown away by the work they created and the movements they’ve shifted in just twelve short months.
Some are working radically towards changing the systems around us that are fraying and maybe even in collapse. Others are supporting those systems that do work, ensuring integrity and respect for the planet and its creatures. We’re supporting artists pushing the boundaries of what we might expect to see from performance, installation, and media. We sought out and supported those making films to expose truths and bring about hope, resilience and replicable ideas. This group of grantees is exploding with the rumblings of inspiration and booty-kicking motivation to think, do, and create with fervor.
It is a privilege and an honor to introduce you to our Fall grantees. Read about them and their projects below. There is a lot to look forward to in 2014 as we hear more from these impressive groups.

Announcement of 2014 Solutions Lab Cohort Earlier this year we put out our first ever open Request for Proposals for the Solutions Laboratory program. We asked Northern New Mexicans to take creative action in the face of climate change, and we were overwhelmed with the quality of submissions and the audacious innovations proposed to us.
With 39 applications and a limited number of spots in the cohort, decision-making was very tough. We wanted to honor the diversity of Northern New Mexico and as such we were thrilled to discover that people and organizations ranging in age, background, interest and perspective presented themselves to us.
With our stellar Selection Committee we were able to make our final decisions for the cohort, compiling a motley crew of locals whose ideas are at once tenacious and inventive. This group will be working together intensively together with two great facilitators over the next four months. We’ll be tracking some of their ideas, collaborations, and experiences here on the site and we can’t wait to see what this group will come up with.
Below, you can read about each cohort member, the organizations some of them are representing, and the initial spark of their ideas, which came from their original applications to the program.

Kindle Project + Yes Lab || Match Grant Campaign Alright, so here’s the deal. A couple weeks ago our friends over at the Yes Lab launched an awesome campaign that involves yours truly (Kindle Project that is).
They are looking to raise money to further their essential work and spur their highly effective offbeat and game-changing antics. We were thinking… what can we do to help this group keep moving forward?
Our answer is this: Kindle Project is matching every dollar raised up to $75,000 before December 31, 2013.
We know how effective, unique and important their work is, but we also know that they need more funds than we can provide to do this work. By us committing to this match grant we are effectively bringing all Yes Lab and Yes Men supporters into the funding relationship with us. We are committing together.
Sounds a little too relationship-y maybe? A touch too hands holding hands for a funder? Well, it is, and that’s how we like it. At Kindle we believe strongly in giving beyond the money and as an organization we believe in moving beyond a transactional funder/grantee relationship. It is a commitment, and since the Yes Lab became a grantee of ours five years ago, at a time when Kindle was still relatively new and the Yes Lab had no major funders to date, we took risks on each other and have been learning and growing ever since.
Because of this relationship we know that now is the right time to help this organization push their fundraising further, and we are inviting you to do that with us. Knowing that generosity often begets more generosity we encourage you to give what you can, (remember dollar for dollar--which means every dollar counts).
Share this campaign with your friends and networks. Hands holding hands - and proud of it.

Dread Scott I am currently working on an epic project and I want to share with you a behind the scenes look as it is in the early stages of development.
Slave Rebellion Reenactment will restage and reinterpret Louisiana’s German Coast Uprising of 1811. This uprising was the largest rebellion of enslaved people in American history. The reenactment will animate a hidden history of people with an audacious plan to take up arms to fight for their emancipation. The performance will draw on the tradition of Civil War reenactment and reenactment societies. It will involve hundreds of re-enactors (men and women), period specific uniforms of the enslaved rebels as well as clothing of the slave owners, horses and armaments. It will be reenacted on the outskirts of New Orleans where the 1811 revolt happened—the chemical refineries and trailer parks that have replaced the sugar plantations will be part of the backdrop. Slave rebellions were clandestinely organized by small groups of individuals. Mirroring this structure, an integral part of the artwork will be organizing meetings of multiple small groupings of participants and potential participants. Videos of the meetings will be part of the artwork’s archive.
Charles Deslondes, Kook and Quamana, the leaders of the 1811 uprising, and the many enslaved people who were part of the revolt are heroes whose vision and audacity should inspire people today, as it did in the past. Their rebellion is a profound “what if?” story. It had a real chance of succeeding—what would that have meant for US and world history? Having an understanding that the past was not predetermined opens the ability for people to dream “what if?” for the future. I hope that this project helps people of all races broaden their vision of what is possible.
From the beginning of September 2013, I was a Knight Artist-in-Residence at the McColl Center in Charlotte, NC. From there I worked on beginning to raise a slave army and traveled to New Orleans to conduct research and meet people who are the caretakers of this history and others who might participate. While there I took pictures of the some of the refineries, small towns and levies that will be the route for the reenactments’ ghost slave army. Some are shown on this Nexus page.
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I have a lot of work to do to continue to raise this army and raise the money needed to outfit 700+ re-enactors and undertake the full scope of the project. And I’ll need permits granted, costumes sewn, film crews filming, logistical support, a website dedicated to the project, etc. I invite you to come on this journey with me. Sign up for info at http://www.dreadscott.net/rebellion-mailing
In addition to meeting and talking with many interesting people, a large part of Slave Rebellion Reenactment involves research/reading. My reading list includes:
- American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt, Daniel Rasmussen (a bestselling account of the 1811 revolt.)
- On to New Orleans, Herbert Thrasher (who told the “untold story” years before American Uprising)
- Soul By Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market, Walter Johnson
- Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy, Bob Avakian
- Confession of Nat Turner
- American Negro Slave Revolts, Herbert Aptheker
- Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South, Adam Rothman
- Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to WWII, Douglas Blackmon
- Fire on the Mountain, Terry Bisson (a cool sci-fi “what-if” set in the future if John Brown and Harriet Tubman launched a successful war to end slavery)
- Race and Reunion, The Civil War in American Memory, David W. Blight
And I’ve been looking at how great artists have approached slave and peasant uprising. In particular:
- Hale Woodruff (Amistad murals)
- Kathe Kolwitz (Peasant War series)

Cohdi Harrell These images and short trailer are from my newest piece of work "theOTHER".
I have spent the better part of my life in foreign countries and places that aren't quite "home". Having been raised partly in the the Middle East with my family, my skills to adapt and integrate(?) myself into unknown environments have been being honed since a young queer kid on the streets of Cairo.
As I get older, and this nomadic "outsider" continues to thrive, I realize that these spaces of not quite belonging (both physical and energetic environments) are a place that I thrive and potentially feel the most at home. "theOTHER" examines these states of experience.
www.cohdiharrell.com
www.ricochet.name
facebook.com/Cohdiharrell
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http://youtu.be/k6WWGoh5G0c

Erika Wanenmacher I am an unrepentant maker of things. I believe objects that are made with intent carry resonance that can shift energy, power, and beliefs. Clear intent focused by will and imagination are the components of a spell. I make spells in the form of objects.
Maya Deren, the pioneer surrealist film-maker, wrote “The artist is the magician who, by his perception of the powers and laws of the non-apparent, exercises them upon the apparent. In the dimensions of the real he creates the manifestations of the apparently non-real which is always astonishing to those who do not admit to the existence of laws apart from the limits of their own intelligence. The more concealed the law which he activates in the perceptible universe, the more astounding seems the miracle of his creation. But the phases of magic are two: he must not only discover the hidden, the obscure laws; he must be able to summon them into the realm of the real, he must be able to activate them in the real, and to make them manifest.
I strive to manifest resonant objects.
All photos by Michael Lujan
www.erikawanenmacher.com
www.laurastewardprojects.com
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Juice Rap News Hey, everyone, This is Hugo and Giordano from Juice Rap News.
We were honoured, and a little flabbergasted, to receive the Makers Muse Award this year. It was truly amazing to have someone reach out across the ether and say, 'hey, you! yeah, you! that crazy project you've been working on for the last few years… we love it! We want to gift you some money for it!'
If you don't know the show, it's a satirical online news show where everything is delivered in rap rhyme, and all the characters are played by a very small cast, with home-made props, makeshift lighting and anarchic costuming. We’ve been broadcasting our bulletins via thejuicemedia youtube channel since 2009, so we’ve been doing this now for about 4 years. During that time, we’re absolutely blessed to have garnered an amazingly diverse and dedicated audience which spans across the world, from north America to Australia, Russia, South Africa and Brazil. Our shows have been translated into more than 20 languages, thanks to volunteer translators who help us out with each episode. And we have the support an amazing team of helpers who assist us with producing the show.
We see the popularity of the show as a reflection of the common will of an increasingly vocal segment of the cyber-population that yearns to change the direction on which humanity is headed; to take control of this ship through the power of information and education. The project was born out of a deep desire to participate in the growing conversation now taking place worldwide thanks to the advent of the internet, and to use it to radicalise our generation towards heightened awareness. This period in which we live offers a unique window of opportunity for humanity as a whole: for the first time we have an alternative channel for bypassing the monopoly on the flow of information that has so helped to shape “reality” for many of us. However, this window won’t stay open for much longer. The internet clearly poses an immediate threat to incumbent power structures. Its native openness and transparency is coming under attack and if we don’t put up a fight we will be left in the dark once again.
In the light of this, our aim is to use this medium, the internet – while we still have it; to stimulate constructive, enlightening discourse, whilst also delivering a powerful mix of headnod beats, rhymes and comedy. We play dress-up, and there's plenty of jokes in our take on “the news” and current affairs, but there's always also a solid undercurrent of philosophy and historic analysis which aims to deconstruct, demystify and generally explain what the hell is going on our planet – from the environment and politics to Indigenous resistance movements. At the same time, we try to ensure that the rap is of the highest quality we can manage within the constrictions of time and content.
A typical production schedule will last for a few weeks all up. We'll start by getting really fired up about some event that's happening. We might notice that something important is being ignored by the media, or that the conversation around a certain topic or occurrence is missing a certain element that we feel we could contribute. This is the kind of thing that we like to focus our energy on, rather than just commenting on the latest dominant story - although we sometimes do that too.
Once we've done a heap of research and gathered as much information on the topic as we can manage, we then often like to go for a long walk by a river. It's a great way to get away from the monitor screen, and clear the head. While we're walking we brainstorm ideas. How could the episode play out? What characters should be involved, what points should they make and in what order?
As mentioned, we have a team of people around the world who help us out, and so once we've got an idea of what the episode is going to contain, we have a pretty good idea what we're going to need, and from whom. Thus begins a round of email alerts shooting across the globe to various mountain-top monasteries, secret underground government prisons and mist-enshrouded kung-fu dojos; one by one nudging out of deep meditation our elite team of music composers, beat-makers, animators, designers, make-up artists and costume sources, who steal away into the night and begin to prepare the awesomeness we have come to enjoy and depend on for the show.
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We then go into writing mode. It's a pretty intense period, normally lasting at least 3-4 days, preferably longer, in which the script is first blocked out, then 'rhymified', then edited, then 'rhymified' again, and then, continually edited and tweaked to get as best a compromise between comedy, content and rap rhyming that we can concoct. This continues right up until vocal recording, which takes place at Rap News HQ – AKA Giordano's house – and is quite gruelling: it takes hours to get the nuances and character voices right, as well as trying to preserve as much rapping 'flow' as possible.
Then it's time for filming, which, with all the costumes, and make-up, and general horse-play in front of the camera, is often the most fun part of the process. Once we've got the all-important takes, it's time for the editing process. All up, we try to produce the whole video within the space of 7-9 days, in order to get it out while the story is still fresh!
Without a doubt, the most exciting part for any YouTube creator’s life is the moment of uploading the finished video. We thoroughly enjoy kicking back with a few beers, reading comments – whether complimentary, or arguing points that we've made in the video – checking the response on Facebook and Twitter, and re-watching the episode a number of times together. We never rest for long, however, as the next episode is always just around the corner.
It feels great to play a part, however small, in helping to spark conversations and a few laughs about important matters. And we are immensely grateful to the Kindle Project for helping us to keep going, through the support of the Makers Muse award. This support has helped to inspire us to take the show to the next level and we plan to kick off 2014 with a whole new season of regular monthly shows. Stay tuned!
Hugo Farrant is Juice Rap News’s lyricist and fills the role of the amiable Juice Rap News anchorman, Robert Foster – as well as many of the guests who appear on the show. Hailing from Branksome in the UK, Hugo is a prolific rhymer and orator, MC and spoken-word poet who regularly graces the stages and festivals of Melbourne. Having spent 8+ years rhyming and rapping, he now co-rhymes/writes Juice Rap News.
Giordano Nanni is Juice Rap News’s writer & editor (occasionally, supporting actor), and is responsible for the critiques and philosophies explored by Robert Foster, and many of the other characters on the show. With a background in history, music and media, Giordano is the instigator of a number of projects spanning theatre, print and the internets – including ~TheJuiceMedia, which he established in 2008.
The collaboration of mind and body between Hugo and Giordano is embodied in the character of Robert Foster, Juice Rap News’s affable anchorman, whose retro outfits and biting critiques of current affairs have earned him respect in the whimsical world of news satire. Since their first broadcast in October 2009, Giordano and Hugo’s collaboration has given Juice Rap News its unique flavour, bringing together their passions for rap, history, satire, journalism… and scrambled eggs.
Website: www.thejuicemedia.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thejuicemedia
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rapnews
Twitter: @JuiceRapNews

Community Midwifery Fund Community Midwifery is a Reproductive Justice Issue
The Community Midwifery Fund (CMF) partners with individuals, organizations, and communities that embrace the process of birth as a path towards increased interconnection and empowerment for mother, child, family, and community. Our goal is to increase marginalized women’s access to midwifery care and services, as well as to support the development of community midwifery projects that are led by low income women and women of color and that seek to create a holistic paradigm for birthing, reproductive health, girls’ leadership development, and community empowerment. CMF is housed at the Groundswell Fund, which mobilizes new funding and capacity-building resources to reproductive justice efforts led by low income women and women of color. Groundswell considers birthing rights to be a core component of the reproductive justice framework and believes that access to quality midwifery care is a basic human right that should be available to all, regardless of race, age or economic status.
In October 2013, Groundswell hosted a two day convening in Petaluma, CA, for practitioners and leaders within the midwifery and reproductive justice communities to build relationship with each other, laying the groundwork for increased trust and shared work. Although an unlikely goal for a funder, we believe relationship-building is at the core of impactful, transformative work—just as it is at the core of a midwifery-facilitated birth process. It had been years since members of these two communities had come together intentionally, and participants emerged with renewed commitment to their work and strong desires to collaborate with each other. The group generated some exciting new ways to be in relationship to each other, and we were honored to host such a generative and authentic conversation.
In these videos, representatives from three Groundswell grantees share stories of their work, their experience of this convening, and their vision for a world in which reproductive justice is achieved and all people have access to empowering birth and parenting experiences. We hope their stories inspire you as much as they do us.
http://vimeo.com/album/2577132/video/77246798
http://vimeo.com/album/2577132/video/77246797
http://vimeo.com/album/2577132/video/77261437
Learn more about the Community Midwifery Fund.
Interviewed:
Pia Long, Board Member, West Virginia FREE
Farah Diaz-Tello, National Advocates for Pregnant Women
Shafia Monroe, International Center for Traditional Childbearing

Indie Philanthropy on Philanthrogeek At Kindle, we’ve been practitioners of Indie Philanthropy since we began in 2008, before we even knew it had a name. Last year at our strategic planning retreat with our Steering Committee, the idea to launch the Indie Philanthropy Toolkit was born. Excited to collect stories, styles, resources and networks of interested parties, we’ve been getting our hands dirty with research, writing, conversation and exploration to launch this project in October 2014.
We were thrilled when Philanthrogeek founder, Nathaniel James invited Kindle consultant, and longtime friend and advisor, Laura Loescher to write about Indie Philanthropy on his website. The article below, (originally published here), is a wonderful introduction to Indie Philanthropy and the kinds of subjects and themes we will be exploring with this new project.
A big thank you to Laura for planting the seeds of this Toolkit with this article. Her wise words and apt insights are making sure that this project will serve those who need it most—Indie Philanthropist practitioners and those interested in out-of-the-box giving. We can’t wait to share the Toolkit with you next year. Until then, learn more by reading Laura’s article below.
A big thank you to Philanthrogeek as well—a great site and resource for those interested in great articles, research and information on social giving.
Are you an Indie Philanthropist?
Originally posted on October 10, 2013 by Laura Loescher on Philanthrogeek
Through my twenty-year career in philanthropy and social impact investing, I’ve had some amazing sandboxes to play in with my colleagues and co-creators—continually experimenting and innovating at the outer edges (and sometimes jumping out of the box entirely!). Over the years, in various roles, I’ve collaborated with others to promote community-based philanthropy, engage with Flow Funding, design giving circles, fund start-ups, back crowdfunding campaigns, and participate in micro-granting programs. It’s only very recently that I discovered a term that captures the spirit of what my playmates and I have been up to all these years: Indie Philanthropy.
The term Indie Philanthropy came out of a dynamic strategic planning process that I was a part of with Kindle Project, an unconventional philanthropic organization that I’ve been advising since it began in 2008. Kindle Project was looking to define the spirit and action of what they were doing, and what they saw others in the field experimenting with as well.
When Kindle Project first began, the founders saw the importance of funding both individuals and organizations working in creative ways. By operating with an LLC, a nonprofit fiscal sponsor AND a donor advised fund, they established a structure that allowed the organization to make awards to individuals, offer flow funding opportunities (allowing others to make small grants directly within their community), fund start-up projects, support informal groups, as well as making more traditional grants to 501c3 organizations. Basically, they’ve been utilizing whatever methods would best meet the needs of its grantees and have the biggest impact. Now we have a name for this style of funding: Indie Philanthropy
Similar to how Indie Films are produced outside of the major film studio system and often have unique style and content, Indie Philanthropy operates outside of traditional philanthropic models. It encompasses a range of practices, structures and attitudes rising from rapidly changing economic, cultural and collaborative contexts. Indie Philanthropy can be identified by HOW funding is done, by WHAT is being funded, and by HOW impact is measured.
Since the games played in this field are so varied, it is a challenge to encapsulate the underlying principles of Indie Philanthropy. However, it seems as though various forms of Indie Philanthropy operate with one ore more of the following themes:
1) Experimentation and Innovation: risk-taking is respected and “failure” is part of learning, evolving and becoming more effective.
2) Trust and Balance in Relationships: the quality of relationship and communication between donors and grantees is emphasized and cultivated, and power imbalances are diminished.
3) Collaboration: partnership and sharing on many levels is valued and integrated into the funding process.
4) Empowerment and Responsiveness: grantees are encouraged to set their own priorities, define success for themselves, and shift course if useful to adapt to changing circumstances or information.
Anyone involved in mainstream philanthropy – whether on the funder or grantee side – knows that these themes contrast pretty dramatically with some of the more conventional philanthropic structures, systems and practices.
Why is Indie Philanthropy important? In these times of rapid change and global crisis, the health of our planet, communities and systems depends on creative, collaborative solutions from the ground up. Many of these solutions are emerging from individuals and communities that are not part of formal nonprofit organizations or who don’t have access to mainstream foundation dollars.
Traditional philanthropy is often not reaching leading edge thinkers, activists and change-makers. Indie Philanthropy represents a positive disruption to this status quo—its practices are complementary to mainstream philanthropy, providing much-needed diversity, creativity and risk-taking to the broad field of philanthropy. Through crowdfunding, micro-granting, giving circles, flow funding, individual awards, community partnerships (among other Indie styles) Indie Philanthropy creates opportunities for diverse and innovative impacts by directing resources to people and projects that wouldn’t otherwise have access to philanthropic dollars. Some styles of Indie Philanthropy are also way more accessible to would-be donors – someone with $25 to give can participate as fully as someone with $25,000 to give.
Indie Philanthropy is dynamic and continually evolving—responsive to the rapidly shifting landscape of change-making activities and offering resources in ways that can best serve the needs of cutting edge work. Many Indie Philanthropy practices help build trust and create healthy, collaborative relationships between donors and grantees. While this can be more fulfilling for everyone involved, it’s also strategic—trust is essential for effective rapid response funding, for developing long-term partnerships, and for appropriate course corrections when circumstances change.
Just last month, Kindle Project launched its latest venture: The Kindle Project Solutions Laboratory which is “aimed at nurturing early stages of creativity, bringing people and organizations together to catalyze existing potential and inspire community-rooted solutions to complex issues.” For this first cycle, the focus is on solutions to the challenges faced by New Mexico communities due to an unpredictable changing climate. Applicants will vie for a spot in a four-month cohort, accompanied by a cash award, and will be selected based on their response to the following question: “What would you do to inspire and lead your community to bring about a vibrant future in the face of shifting reality?” (The deadline to apply is October 20, 2013 – check it out if you are interested!)
This is just one example among many experimental Indie Philanthropy approaches seeking to support and nurture truly important (but perhaps overlooked) ideas and actions that could make a real difference (in this case at the local level) in changing the direction of the alarmingly destructive course we are on with regards to environmental degradation, economic inequality and human rights disasters.
I’m also collaborating with Kindle Project and others to create on online resource for people interested in learning about and implementing Indie Philanthropy. This Indie Philanthropy Toolkit will include examples of a wide range of Indie Philanthropy approaches, complete with definitions, descriptions, stories and instructions. We would love to hear from you if you know about, or are involved with, an Indie Philanthropy project that you think should be featured in the Toolkit. Please email us at indiephilanthropy@kindleproject.org. We plan to launch the Toolkit in the Summer of 2014.
Indie Philanthropy provides an opportunity for many people across the social and economic spectrum to contribute to emerging alternatives for personal, collective and planetary wellbeing. If you’re not already playing this game, I invite you to join the fun!
Indie Philanthropy postcard design by Luke Dorman.
Laura Loescher is a leadership coach, philanthropic advisor and a guide to individuals and organizations who are devoting their lives and resources to inner and outer healing and transformation. A renowned philanthropic leader and innovator, Laura previously co-founded and directed Aepoch Fund, a foundation supporting artists, healers, activists and movements engaged in transforming ecological, cultural, economic, and social conditions so that all people and the planet can thrive. Prior to that, she co-founded and directed Changemakers, a foundation practicing and promoting community-based philanthropy and organizing donors to direct their giving to social change. She has designed and facilitated trainings, workshops, and curricula related to personal development, philanthropy and social change for audiences around the country. After nearly two decades living and working in San Francisco, she recently moved to tranquil Ashland, Oregon with her partner Saleem Berryman.

Kindle Project and the Yes Men: A Day in the Life at EGA A couple weeks ago Kindle Project and our longtime grantee, the Yes Lab, had the good fortune to attend the Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA) Annual Retreat in New Orleans. Kindle sponsored a concurrent session for retreat goers entitled Media Action Smackdown with the Yes Men. Mike Bonanno, Andy Bichlbaum (the Yes Men themselves) and Tal Beery (the wildly talented Yes Men Development Director), shared their success stories and strategic media tactics with a room packed full of fascinated grantmakers.
Mike and Andy held the room in rapt attention as they explained past campaigns that used media and PR tactics to accomplish their goals of getting much needed attention to often neglected important issues. They shared their highly successful endeavor of when Andy posed as a Dow Chemical representative live on BBC, promising compensation for the thousands of victims of the Bhopal disaster in India. They talked about the Yes Lab successful campaign collaboration with Coal is Killing Kids which forced the public to look at the health damages caused by the fossil fuel industry. Amidst other examples of past campaigns, they talked about their upcoming project called the Action Switchboard; a soon-to-be launched platform that will allow thousands of people to tap into and share movement-building projects around pressing issues. We were encouraged to see how many grantmakers were excited to learn about the Yes Men strategy of craftily circumventing traditional coverage of issues to bring truth into the spotlight.
Everyone who attends EGA makes grants that serve the broad field environmental philanthropy. We heard stories from subjects as varied as divestment strategies to wildlife conservation. With such diversity, mixed with a delegation from China and a few Canadian groups as well, we were more than proud to facilitate the sharing of the Yes Men’s unique viewpoint.
Some highlights of what we experienced throughout the week:
- Learning that there are currently 32 places in New Orleans that have been erased from the map because they are now under water.
- Hearing former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, speak inspiringly about her work and activism. A favorite quote from her talk: “[We need to] amplify the voices of the owners of the work.” A very important message and reminder to grantmakers.
- Meeting Raj Patel and hearing him speak truth and wisdom on a panel. Favorite quote: “There’s nothing as compelling as a good example.” This is what Kindle is hoping to accomplish with our Solutions Laboratory! Glad we’re on the same page Raj…
- Having a great sit down with Annie Leonard as the latest film in her Story of Stuff series went live.
- Having frank conversations about how environmental justice cannot be considered without having conversations about a much needed New Economy.
- Hearing the success stories from the Transition Network founder Rob Hopkins and Chair, Peter Lipman.
- Impromptu meeting of Skylar Fein and getting the chance to see his Lincoln Bedroom installation before it hits the road to NYC next month.
- Sharing conversation and New Orleans style snacks with Kindle grantee Other Worlds Program Director, Beverly Bell and their Education and Outreach Coordinator Deepa Panchang. They gave us a crash course in the complex beauty of New Orleans and talked us through some of their new and exciting programs.
A special thank you to our friend and fellow EGA member, Farhad Ebrahimi for doing so much to make all of this come to fruition!
Below is a scrapbook of photos from our time together. With a backdrop of the incredible city with much to offer and teach, we were happy to be with new friends and old and even cut a rug with the familiar faces of other Kindle grantees. Our time was filled with story-sharing, strategizing, bridge-building, friendship-making, and, of course in true Yes Men and Kindle fashion—a lot of very loud laughter.
[gallery columns="2" ids="4926,4928,4931,4929,4927,4881,4882,4885,4886,4884,4889,4891,4943,4892,4893,4925,4890,4941"]

Interference Archive: An Update by Molly Fair In 2011, Interference Archive opened it’s doors to the public in Brooklyn, NY. It evolved from artists/activists Josh MacPhee and Dara Greenwald's personal collection of materials created by and for social movements into a grassroots, volunteer-run, public archive. The collection consists of many kinds of objects that are created as part of social movements by activists themselves— posters, flyers, publications, photographs, books, T-shirts and buttons, moving images, audio recordings, and more. Around 30 volunteers are engaged in the work we do— creating exhibitions, building a database, hosting visiting classes, assisting researchers, and organizing events. A lot of our energy has been focused on forming solidarities with movements today— including the anti-nuclear movement in Japan, the student movement in Quebec, the international Occupy movement, and radical artists in Mexico. We are interested in using the collection in ways that build community and allow us to better understand struggles of the past and the times we live in.
We are taking a different approach than traditional archives by encouraging people to tell their own stories through participating directly in archival work. This philosophy is also reflected in the kinds of programming we do with exhibitions, talks, films screenings, and workshops, and by inviting movement groups to make use of our space and resources. Our current exhibit, This is an Emergency!, features a project organized by activist/printmaker Meredith Stern. It was created in response to the continuous attacks on reproductive rights and gender justice, bringing together the voices of those most affected by these issues— women, queer identified, and transgender folks, through a portfolio of prints created by 17 artists, and a zine of interviews with mentor activists.
To contextualize this project, we have displayed materials from our collection such as pamphlets from the 1970's women's health movement, and zines on reproductive health from the 90's riot grrrl movement. Hallie Boas from Rise Up/Levantas Texas presented on direct action tactics the group used to combat the passage of draconian anti-women bills in the Texas legislature. We have an event planned with health practitioners and activists to discuss reproductive justice for those marginalized in the "pro-choice" framework including incarcerated women, trans and gender non-conforming folks, drug users, and sex workers. We'll also be hosting a talk with filmmakers/activists doing a project about Marsha P. Johnson, who was a beloved NYC-based transgender activist. These activities animate our collective radical histories and celebrate current work of people mobilizing for social transformation.
[gallery columns="2" ids="4905,4896,4898,4899,4900,4901,4902,4903,4906"]
[caption id="attachment_4904" align="alignleft" width="300"] Interference Archive organizer Molly Fair (left) with artistMeredith Stern (right) at the exhibit "This is an Emergency"[/caption]
Molly Fair is an archivist, activist, and multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in printmaking, video, and illustration. She is a collective member of Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative (justseeds.org) and an organizer at Interference Archive (interferencearchive.org). Her work has been published in Firebrands: Portraits From the Americas (Microcosm, 2010), Celebrate People’s History: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution (Feminist Press, 2011), World War III Illustrated, and the forthcoming Informed Agitation (Library Juice Press, 2013).
Interference Archive was a Flow Fund recipient of Kindle Project in 2012. To learn more about them visit their links below.
Interference Archive website
Interference archive facebook page
This is an Emergency!: A portfolio of reproductive rights and gender justice

People's Grocery - Food Justice in Context Food Justice: Context
By Nikki Henderson
Executive Director, People’s Grocery
For me
Food Justice strikes the heart
I live in West Oakland
I walk to work
Bike to work
One mile from my house.
The context for food justice
Lives in the way my neighbor washes my car
Just because his mama taught him to take care of ladies he respectsIt lives in the gentleman who screams in the street at night
Yelling at things only he can see
It lives in the scores of young brothas
That holler at me when I walk to work
That I greet with a smile and a nod
As they teach me about the gentle bashfulness of black men
And I teach them about ways to approach women
It lives in the old woman who reminds me of my grandmother
That I greet in front of the 99 Cents Store
I watch her carry sugar cereal and plastic wrapped bell peppers
And I remember my grandfather’s wrapped feet
As he struggled not to succumb to diabetes
It lives in the 10 year olds
Who stop by the corner store on their way to school
To pick up Hot Cheetos and Candy
This is my life
Before I get to “work”
This is the context for so many
It’s easy to read about
And “absorb” through a “personal interest story” in the news
But how do you feel the lived experience
If you haven’t lived it?
How deeply can we access empathy
For things we have not seen?
This is the context for food justice freedom fighters
Our success runs as deep as our ability
To connect
To share
To understand with our hearts and stomachs
In addition to our minds
How do we include this in our “work”?
How do we pull this knowledge of human relationship
From the soil
As we grow new life forms
That we consume and transform?
How do we internalize and cultivate
The wisdom inherent in our cyclical relationship with food?
--
The lived experience of those working toward a healthier, just food system is a critical building block of solutions that work. As an Executive Director of a food justice organization in Oakland (CA), I’ve attempted to incorporate my experiences and those of our team into the ways we operate—from our management practices to our community outreach approaches. If I interacted with the grandmother-like woman at the 99 Cents store on my way into the office and I arrive with a heavy heart, can I take that feeling and utilize it during our outreach to the housing project across the street? If we all notice the 10 year olds at the liquor store, can we use that experience to design our youth programming at our quarterly festivals? This methodology has dramatically impacted our programmatic success, and more significantly, it has supported our team with having a personally sustainable approach to community-based work in the midst of very difficult circumstances.
I began to wonder: how could this methodology reach to the highest levels of our strategic planning process? It’s more easily manageable to connect “lived experience” to programmatic goals, but if I wanted capacity building and other organizational development activities to be driven by the “heart” in addition to the “mind”, how could I approach this?
For context: historically, organizations in the social justice sector of the food movement have been under-resourced and have had difficulty evolving past the “start-up” chaos that characterizes many grassroots organizations. Now a decade old, the social justice sector of the food movement has an opportunity to build organizations with competitive salaries, evaluation prowess, and capacity to direct research and policy. For equity to sit squarely in the center of the food movement, grassroots justice-focused organizations must establish collective power and be positioned to lead national dialogue. This is our organizational development challenge as a movement over the next few years.
It’s a well-traveled, paved road to scaling in conventional ways. Traditional models of building power (including replication) have become important conversations in grassroots and philanthropic communities as the social justice sector of the food movement has increased our brand strength, accessed larger media platforms, and achieved long-term success with our local programming. However, many of our organizations see challenges with a centralized “national office”, local “chapters” and other traditional models – this type of scale can sometimes (although not in all instances) inhibit local ingenuity from receiving investment. This is where I usually notice the breakage between the “heart” and “mind”—national offices and chapters make logical sense, but the management of personalities, relationships, and identity (the heart realm) requires finesse and subtlety.
When thinking about food work in historically under-invested communities, the significance of local ownership, identity, and assets cannot be overemphasized. Most solutions and initiatives led by those struggling with food insecurity, in Oakland, Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, and dozens of other cities have evolved with very strong identities that are key to the continued engagement of community members. Individuals and families struggling with limited incomes, gang violence, health crises and the myriad of other poverty symptoms have found a place to claim as our own in the food justice sector. This individuality and uniqueness of each city’s response to food insecurity must be cultivated, if the movement wishes to nurture leadership amongst local residents, a step beyond participation. However, we do not want to lose the collective visioning, fundraising, efficiency and widespread impact a national organization can provide (the mind realm): how can we harness the power of both national aggregation and local autonomy? Both the “mind” and the “heart”?
For me, this is where lived experience, local ownership, and network theory intersect. The complexity of neighborhood improvement in our communities requires leadership from those with lived experience in such communities. Poverty, and the myriad of symptoms resulting from it, is a visceral experience that cannot be replicated. Individuals with loved ones who suffer from the loss of children, life-threatening health ailments, and the accumulative psychological effects of “never having enough” have an altogether different approach to community transformation. These individuals exist uncomfortably within field-specific work (social services, education, and even food systems) and consistently find themselves striving for a holistic approach to social justice. These leaders have integrity, determination, and drive that is an incredible asset to social change work. However, without partnership from others, it is difficult to thrive. Incorporating our lived experience into our work requires a higher attention to relationship and trust—we need partners with us more urgently.
One of my dreams is that the food justice movement will create a series of strong networks within which we can reshape the field and centralize holistic community development as the work of social justice. Networks built upon good will, trust, and camaraderie. We would encompass food systems, housing, education, family wellness, education, and every other sector that affects the lives of families. We would approach collective impact in a way that allows for multiple interests, and spend more of our time operating in collaboration. This is where I’m devoting my energy over the next few years – and I’m looking forward to finding partners with which to move forward.
Nikki began her work in social justice through the foster care system in Southern California, having been raised with seven older foster brothers. Through mentoring, tutoring, and directing Foster Youth Empowerment Workshops, she developed her passion for youth leadership development among communities of color. She later shifted into sustainability, developing course curriculum for the University of California system and advocating across the state for environmental justice and political ecology. She has worked closely with Van Jones and Phaedra Ellis Lamkins at Green for All, fighting for a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. She was also a part of Slow Food USA in Brooklyn, NY where President Josh Viertel came to regard her as an “extraordinary leader with a vision for how food and urban farming can be tools of empowerment”. In 2009, Nikki co-founded Live Real, a national collaborative of food movement organizations committed to strengthening and expanding the youth food movement in the United States. In 2010, Nikki was featured in ELLE magazine as one of the five Gold Awardees. She has a Master’s degree in African American Studies from UCLA, and is originally from Los Angeles, CA. Email Nikki or contact her at Ext. 21

John Bolenbaugh Answers the Kindle Questionnaire Helppa.org is the organization I created to fight against corporations polluting our water, air, land, and life with toxic chemicals. I document spills around the country by "exposing the truth with video proof." I document, educate and defend the people, animals and environment from corporate lies, bullying and injustice. Read my bio after the interview to learn about how I arrived at this work.
What do you see as the greatest challenge your community is facing?
Proving that residents are sick as a DIRECT RESULT from the toxic chemicals they were exposed to during the spill. My interviews and my health study is vital to proving this in public opinion and in the court of law.
What is the strongest asset of your community?
That I have county and city commissioners, a police chief and officers, paramedics and doctors that are all backing me up in my pursuit of the truth.
Who are your real-life heroes in your field?
The Environment wasn't my field until I saw my community and our environment devastated. That changed my life and gave me a purpose from God. My heroes aren't the leaders of organizations or politicians that speak about climate change or government issues, but are the ones that are in the trenches and become whistle blowers that have everything to lose and nothing to gain. So Whistle Blowers are my heroes.
When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
I felt most fulfilled when Enbridge had to re-clean areas up that they said were 100% clean the year before at the cost of over $400,000,000 so far because of my video evidence.
What is the trait you most deplore of your field?
I hate that oil or fracking workers can't come forward because if they do they will risk losing everything they have including their family's well-being and income all because they want to do the right thing and tell the truth. My entire family works for oil companies and they can't even tell co-workers they support me out of fear of being blackballed or fired.
What is one thing you wish the general public knew about your work?
If I wasn't alone in this fight I could accomplish so much more.
If funding were no object, what would you do?
I would have a toxic spill crew ready and able to document any future spills around the country. I would have a speaking tour at 50 different events in a one- year period. I would make an in-depth documentary. I would put billboards on every major highway and buy tens of thousands of t-shirts and yard signs all to direct people to the video evidence at helppa.org. Tar Sand Truth. HELPPA.org
What’s your favourite way to procrastinate at work?
I work between 40 to 80 hours a week for free for the last three years so to procrastinate wouldn't be in my vocabulary. My soon to be wife is praying for the day I can get paid to do this very important work. It's hard to start a family with $0.
If you weren’t doing this kind of work, what would you be doing?
Working for oil companies or Union work.
Favourite moment at work?
When an oil worker sneaks me vital information because he wants to do the right thing without the risk, so he gives it to me because he has trust that I won't give his name up.
[gallery columns="5" ids="4834,4836,4837,4839,4833,4832,4831,4840,4841,4842,4846,4848,4849,4850,4851"]
Favourite visual artist?
GOD
Favourite song?
"Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, and "I Need Love" by LL Cool J
Favourite activist?
I don't want to toot my own horn but at the moment it is me. I am very proud of the current changes in my life that have made me a better man- a man with a purpose for others and not one for myself.
Favourite historical figure?
Rosa Parks
What did you eat for dinner last night?
Salad. I am trying to eat healthier now that my kidneys are not functioning properly.
If you could give $10,000 to any organization besides your own, which would it be and why?
To John Hopkins to get his Tar Sand book finished, published, and out to the masses.
On what occasion do you lie?
Only to tell a worker at depositions that I have him on video speaking to me in a past conversation. Only to get him to tell the truth because he thinks he may be caught lying under oath. Don't know if I should have let this secret out of the bag. However, I do have many workers on audio or video so let them take that chance and go to jail for perjury.
What do you think is the greatest social issue of our time?
Government false flags and political lies and agendas
What do you think is the greatest environmental issue of our time?
The major loss of clean air and water. Tar Sands and Fracking being two of the worse causes of that loss.
How do you think we can change the world?
Stop all Tar Sands and Fracking. Go solar and wind.
What book are you reading right now?
Tar Sand articles. Hundreds of them.
What’s your favourite online resource for news?
Jesse Ventura, Infowars, and Russian Television (RT).
What’s your favourite online resource for fun?
YouTube
What’s your favourite blog?
Freedom4kaz
What’s your personal motto?
"Tough times never last, but tough people do!" My high school wrestling coach (John Major, U.S. Olympian) told me this years ago and it has helped me through so many tough times in my life.
What makes you the most angry?
It makes me angry I can't seem to find anyone besides what the Kindle Project has already helped me with that wants to fund me to do the dirty hands-on hard work for them. For the well-being of everyone! I will sacrifice my life if needed. Why can't some rich person say, "Hey, I want to help you try to change the world one video at a time."
What makes you the most happy?
That people are waking up and coming together to protest and stand side by side. If we all could abide by 1 Corinthians 13 (the bible verse about LOVE), we could change this world not only for ourselves but for generations to come.
Honor Environment, Love People, Protect ALL!
HELPPA.org
Thank you Kindle Project
John Bolenbaugh
I am a Navy Veteran with a Bronze Star while serving in the Gulf. During my service I helmed (Drove) the 1.5 billion dollar Aircraft Carrier CVN 70 (Carl Vinson) in and out of ports around the world. Highlights during my service were that I was the coach and captain for my ships wrestling team and I had the opportunity to wrestle around the world. I was honored to shake President Clinton's hand when he came to visit our ship. I have been a head or assistant wrestling coach for freestyle and greco in Jr. high school, high school, and Navy. I also helped out at the college that I wrestled at where I earned varsity letters and academic all American honors. I have been voted coach of the year in my district and I am a former freestyle state champ and greco finalist and high school MVP. I have four years of building trades certifications. I am qualified in 17 different areas of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) with certificates in each. I am currently a Union member (that's being Blackballed) with certifications in oil and toxic spill clean up including the Hazwopper. I was a sub-contracted foreman for the TransCanada Keystone 1 pipeline and during the oil spill cleanup ENBRIDGE personally appointed me to be the yard boss for the biggest staging yard for the biggest inland oil spill in United States history. I then became an on seen site clean up technician which lead to becoming the Whistle Blower for the Michigan (ENBRIDGE) Tar Sand oil spill of over 1,000,000 gallons that spilled the most toxic chemicals known to man kind into our air and water. Now I have become an amateur reporter, investigator, speaker, video editor, radio host, web designer, and social media prosecutor of corporate injustice. Besides the Kindle project grant I have spent over $35,000 of my own personal money documenting and educating the public about Tar sands. I have bought thousands of T-shirts and yard signs that I gave away for free in the attempt to get the message and videos out. I have spent over 7,000 hours of my free time documenting this spill and many other spills (Yellowstone, Mayflower, Gulf). I have lost an $80,000 a year job and career. Now I have even started to lose my own health and well-being with new kidney issues, migraines, and dizziness from the constant exposure to these chemicals. I have risked my freedom from being arrested, my safety, and possible life all in the pursuit that the word gets out. Why? Because my videos can save future lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YbeXu0QJXpg
http://www.helppa.org
Subscribe to John's YouTube channel here.
twitter.com/JohnBolenbaugh
John's Facebook fan page.

Solutions Laboratory - Request for Proposals is Now Open For all funding and application criteria click here.
To fill out an application click here.
We can't wait to see what you'll come up with you bright Northern New Mexicans...!

Carlos Motta's New Film - NEFANDUS Carlos Motta shares stills and poetry from his latest film, which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday September 8th.
NEFANDUS
A video by Carlos Motta
In Nefandus two men travel by canoe down the Don Diego river in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the Colombian Caribbean, a landscape of “wild” beauty. The men, an indigenous man and a Spanish speaking man, tell stories about pecados nefandos [unspeakable sins, abominable crimes]; acts of sodomy that took place in the Americas during the conquest. It has been documented that Spanish conquistadores used sex as a weapon of domination, but what is known about homoerotic pre-hispanic traditions? How did Christian morality, as taught by the Catholic missions and propagated through war during the Conquest, transform the natives’ relationship to sex? Nefandus attentively looks at the landscape, its movement and its sounds for clues of stories that remain untold and have been largely ignored and stigmatized in historical accounts.
HD 16:9. Video, color, sound, 13:04′
Nefanudus
Kogi* speaking man
There are things whose name cannot be mentioned
actions which precede language, names, meanings,
desires which resist being recorded
instinctive, irrational, human moments
There are things that happen, that exist
outside cultural constructions
There are things whose name must not be mentioned
practices enunciated by a language that rejects them
desires inscribed with an abominable meaning, conquered by an orthodox logic,
moments colonized like the territory that comprises them
things turned into history and named against certain traditions; farce disguised as truth
There are situations that take place and are eradicated with moral violence, judged with fervent religious devotion
Those things called unnatural are the abominable sins.
[gallery ids="4788,4789,4790,4791,4792"]
*
Spanish speaking man
The landscape does not confess what it has witnessed; the images are out of time and veil the actions that have taken place there. If we watched attentively the current of the river, the foliage of the trees, or the weight of the rocks, would that reveal their history? No. We have need of instruments, documentation, signs. They were found throughout the American Continent, from the Yucatan Peninsula to the south of the Andes, proud and telling artifacts; earthenware and ceramic pots, jewels forged in gold, and stone sculptures representing homoerotic acts, acts of sodomy, of homosexual sex.
Today I travel along a river bearing the name of a Spanish Don, looking for signs of that celebrated sexuality, traces of the moment which preceded its demonization. This is a conquered river and a complicit river; its clear waters reveal scarred riverbeds where pre-Hispanic ethnicities saw their bodies floating, enslaved, dead, where their traditions were drowned.
*
Kogi speaking man
The Conquest is a history of silences
It subordinates the body
And reduces desire to ashes
*
Spanish speaking man
The expression of the homoerotic was also noted by chroniclers, European settlers and evangelist missionaries saturated with faith and with the morality of a Western god.
In their chronicles they refer to the abominable sins as an abnormality; a shamanic and tribal perversion opposed to the generic sex foundations of “civilization”. Based on the biblical passage on sins against nature in Leviticus 18, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination”, the process of evangelical domestication was, in their view, a “transcendent salvation”.
Other chronicles narrate that the conquistadores gave the sinful natives a dose of their own “taste”, sodomizing them in order to emasculate them, raping them to make them pay for their lack of Christian sense of guilt, and killing them to eradicate the propagation of their heinous crimes. For the settlers sodomy was more abominable than zoophilia and than the solitary pleasure of masturbation; it was the greatest transgression of morality, which justified its being rooted out in any way, no matter how violently.
*
Kogi speaking man
Despite their destructive intention, we remained here, diminished
Bodies, blood, rituals, traditions, legends, sacrifices
The temple of the cosmos,
Sacred land
*
Spanish speaking man
In this territory the Conquest established the notion of history and its pretensions of objectivity. Its accounts and chronicles are based on imported categories; they are responsible for our knowledge of the body and the stigmatization of sex. The anus owes to that moment its transformation into the organ of immorality, into the temple of male vulnerability, into the repository of hatred of transgression and into the territory of sodomy.
*
Kogi speaking man
Their vice was our saintliness
Their nightmare our dream
Their monsters our idols
Their perversions our beliefs
Their history our calvary
Our land their treasure
*
Spanish speaking man
I search behind these wet rocks, through these silent trees and under these running waters, for signs of that which was before being named, traces of the pre-designated. I look for marks of an unknown and undocumented moment. I search for an image of desire before it was created, manipulated, altered, judged. I look for another history; one without violence or oppression. I seek to construct a lie in which I can see myself reflected. I escape from knowledge; I look for myself in a non-existing state.
*
Kogi speaking man
My voice mediated by yours
Words imposed upon my actions
traditions designated as behaviors
your interests reflected on my body
I am a fiction invented by you
Look into my eyes, what do you see?
The flow of the river?
— Text by Carlos Motta
*Kogi is the language spoken by the Kogi people from Colombia
Carlos Motta is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work draws upon political history in an attempt to create counter narratives that recognize the inclusion of suppressed histories, communities, and identities.
Motta’s work has been presented internationally in venues such as Tate Modern, London; The New Museum, The Guggenheim Museum and MoMA/PS1 Contemporary Art Center
Motta’s video “Nefandus” won the Hoteles Catalonia Award for best video at LOOP 2013 in Barcelona and had its International Prémiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (2013).
Motta was named a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow (2008), and received grants from Art Matters (2008), NYSCA (2010), Creative Capital Foundation (2012) and the Kindle Project (2013).

Press Release - Kindle Launches Solutions Laboratory Santa Fe, NM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kindle Project
For media inquiries contact Arianne Shaffer, Communications Director:
arianne@kindleproject.org, 505-983-7463
Kindle Project Launches The Solutions Laboratory
to Fund and Incubate Bold, New Ideas in Northern New Mexico
Individuals, non-profits and informal groups are encouraged to respond to a Request for Proposals
SANTA FE, NM - Communities in Northern New Mexico are facing challenges from drought and water scarcity due to a changing climate. Kindle Project wants to know what you would do to inspire and lead your community to bring about a vibrant future in the face of our shifting reality.
Kindle Project Solutions Laboratory seeks to support new, creative and inspiring alternatives and solutions coming from individuals, organizations and informal groups in Northern New Mexico. We invite our community; across all sectors, generations and fields to share ideas that would shift our collective sense towards a more vital future.
“Working in Northern New Mexico on several fronts, I have had the privilege to work with many strong leaders over the years. I’m confident that as a community, we can harness our rooted collective creativity to inspire real solutions for a changing planet.” – Sadaf Cameron, Kindle Project Director.
Kindle Project will select five applicants. Each will receive a $3000 award and participate in the four-month long program cohort. This program is aimed at nurturing the earliest stages of creativity, thus we are seeking new concepts and projects only. Selected participants will include up to three individuals or informal groups and at least two non-profit organizations.
This is Kindle Project’s first ever open call for applications and we hope it will help to inspire and empower our region to take control of its own destiny.
The full Request for Proposals will be made available here on September 16th.
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Amazon Watch - Notes from the Bacajá The Star Woman, Notes from the Bacajá - Words and pictures by Caroline Bennett
Tears swirled with drops of sweat as smoke spiraled up the corner of the dusky hut, its inner walls pierced by a cascade of golden rays that shot through cracks and cast a warm glow on her crimson-painted face.
"For strength!" she said in her native Kayapó chant-like tongue, and gestured me to follow. She took my hand with strong fingers, weathered and black with fresh paint, and curiously twirled a lock of my foreign blond with the other hand. I sat cross-legged next to her on the earthen floor. Her wise eyes caught mine and softened as I smiled. She began to paint my body.
In the Kayapó myth of the Star Woman, a legendary heroine, the metamorphosis from star to human being is realized through the use of body painting and decoration. Red and black insect and animal-like markings zigzag and speckle the tan skin of Xikrín men, women and children, who believe that painting their bodies allows them to more easily connect to the spirits. I closed my eyes and envisioned her, a goddess wrapped in the same intricate pattern emerging on my right bicep.
[gallery ids="4730,4729,4727,4726,4725,4731"]
Earlier that day we arrived in Potikrô after navigating the vast waters of the Volta Grande to reach the heart of Xikrín territory on the bank of the Rio Bacajá, an affluent of the Xingu south of Altamira in the heart of the Amazon of Brazil. The Xikrín are a subgroup of the Kayapó, the westernmost group of the Northern Gê. The Kayapó – who call themselves "Mebengnôkre," or "people of the big water" – are divided into 15 autonomous groups, each with its own name and distinct cultural characteristics. Our invitation had come from the Bacajá Xikrín, who live in eight communities scattered about the river's lofted clay banks.
Scrambling up a grassy hill from the river, the village is a central plaza bordered by spacious thatched huts leading to the surrounding forest. Homes create a nearly perfect circle around a central "Men's House" – a political, juridical, and ritual meeting space that is said to represent the center of the universe. It was there that I realized the tragic dimensions of the physical threat to the very pulse of the Xikrín people posed by the looming construction of the Belo Monte Dam.
Just the day before I had stood on the bank of the newly constructed cofferdam, a precondition to permanent damming. Its menacing red clay wall barricaded the life flow of the mighty Volta Grande, the “Big Bend” of the Xingu River. Already communities to the east faced flooding, and were forced to flee their homes as water crept up through their floorboards. Southern tributaries like the Bacajá would soon suffer opposite effects as the dam sucks them dry.
If the dam is built, healthy, clear rivers will be replaced by impassable creeks and stagnant puddles full of dead fish that will become the breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitos. Rural riverine communities who rely on fish for nourishment and livelihood would be forced to the shanty outskirts of nearby Altamira, an industry boomtown that is already alarmingly overcrowded and taxed by a rapid influx of migrant workers. It is likely that the Xikrín will no longer be able to navigate the Bacajá river to the city, cutting off access to a world they've become dependent on and making medical help unreachable. Having pushed indigenous peoples closer to dependency on the outside world, the Brazilian government now plans to sever the connection, assuaging the region with meager gifts and misleading promises.
"Caroh-lee-não," she whispered. Her rendition of my name sliced through the quiet with a melodic Kayapó accent that surprised us both. My mind was buried deep in the sounds and smells of the rainforest, and lulled by the methodical stroke of a wet reed on my skin as she painted. Visions of the Star Woman. With projects like Belo Monte looming, I wondered if the Xikrín ever wished they weren't trapped in these human bodies and faced with a physical world deteriorating around them. Take me back to the sky! Back in the smoky hut, I opened my eyes to find intricate networks of celestial constellations dancing down painted arms.
Caroline Bennett is an award-winning storyteller and the Communications Director at Amazon Watch, a nonprofit organization working to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. Amazon Watch works directly with indigenous communities and at the regional and international levels to protect ecologically and culturally sensitive ecosystems in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, where millions of acres of rainforest and wetlands are under threat from oil and gas development, mega-dams, roads, and other unsustainable infrastructure projects.

Tar Sands Blockade - An Update via Video Tar Sands Blockade (TSB) is a coalition of affected Texas and Oklahoma residents and climate justice organizers using peaceful, creative, and sustained civil disobedience to stop the construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and challenge the expansion of the deadly tar sands industry.
TSB has been engaged in our active, dynamic campaign for over a year with numerous milestones marking our accomplishments.
Currently, we are working with a litany of documentation of damaged Keystone XL pipe to illustrate how inadequate tar sands pipeline regulations endanger families and the environment and why Keystone XL in Texas and Oklahoma must be rebuilt from scratch due to TransCanada and their construction contractor Michels' flaunting of what barebones pipeline regulations actually exist.
Here are some videos documenting some important moments over the last year of our campaign.
This is local news coverage of Tar Sands Blockade's first direct action against TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from August 29, 2012 in Livingston, Texas where a group of Texans locked themselves to a pipe carrying truck at the entrance to a TransCanada pipeyard, effectively blocking the entrance for the entire day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4L6NG41iIY
This is a humorous video of an ariel blockader during TSB's three-month-long Winnsboro Tree Blockade creatively recovering a warm blanket that had fallen from their platform 80 feet in the air into a tree below on a cool October evening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asVbomrZ1qU
On Thursday, November 29th, lifelong friends, Diane Wilson and Bob Lindsey, participated in an action with members of Tar Sands Blockade and CodePINK. This video unpacks the rationale behind the action from Bob's perspective and shares concerns from Manchester residents in the words of a community member.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2G8a58Zcbk
A video of TransCanada Quality and Compliance Manager, Tom Hamilton, being disrupted while giving a glowing speech about TransCanada's history of regulatory compliance. This is the action where Tar Sands Blockade unveiled the photo evidence of shoddy welds on KXL South.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfi8-orHUE0
Tar Sands Blockaders were amongst the only people daring to break ExxonMobil's martial law and media blackout in the aftermath of the massive tar sands spill in Mayflower, Arkansas in early April 2013. Our coverage made national and international news.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ugrkBFLkjM
Our work continues and, with the ongoing support of the Kindle Project, we will continue to push the difficult conversation on tar sands exploitation forward.

Kimi Green Answers the Kindle Questionnaire What do you see as the greatest challenge your community is facing?
In a community rich with indigenous, traditional and creative culture, we remain challenged with equity issues regarding natural resources and economic sustainability.
What is the strongest asset of your community?
The cultural and creative diversity and courageous community members and leaders who work tirelessly to impact positive change and transformation despite economic and financial limits. Volunteerism is widespread and there is tremendous good will from individuals and groups who want to make a positive difference.
Who are your real-life heroes in your field?
It’s epic how many people I see as real-life heroes! Wangari Maathai, whose vision and courageous work empowered those in poverty to become part of a vibrant, powerful grassroots movement for environmental, economic and gender equity in Kenya, deeply inspires me.
When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
When I am working directly with the people and community being impacted, I am so moved by the individual acts of courage and commitment on a day to day level that makes a difference. Single mothers, who despite all odds, give their heart and soul to their family and community always touch me deeply.
What is the trait you most deplore of your field?
Approaching issues with a top down model about metrics only and not the quality of change. Grassroots represent transformation from the ground up and yet have to work twice as hard to secure support, if ever, from bureaucracy based institutions.
What is one thing you wish the general public knew about your work?
I have always been guided by Margaret Mead’s statement “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” I believe diverse and united vision and action are at the core of transformational change for the whole.
If funding were no object, what would you do?
I love all that I do and I would also like to work more directly with grassroots movements. I am inspired by the innovative, diverse and people based approach such movements bring to empowering positive change.
What’s your favourite way to procrastinate at work?
Reading articles about late breaking world news, innovations in technology, design and health, and updates in art, music and film. When I am in a work “rut” it helps reignite my passion for the world we live in.
If you weren’t doing this kind of work, what would you be doing?
I would be studying how dolphins do grassroots movements!
Favourite moment at work?
I am deeply touched by the simple daily interactions with profound people who despite all odds are creating change. It reminds me we are all capable of transforming within and being powerful catalysts for change and transformation.
Favourite visual artist?
Tony Abeyta, Award winning Navajo artist and close friend. I have watched Tony’s work evolve to mastery over 25 years and I am always in awe of his creative muse.
Favourite song?
It is too hard to choose one song, but Hugh Makasela is one of my favorite musicians. He is a world class musician who is also a committed humanitarian for political change. I have been blessed to see him in concert numerous times and he inspires his audiences to tears.
Favourite activist?
The Dalai Lama is one of the most remarkable, compassionate and tireless activist for world peace. It was a blessing to work with him and his down to earth, deep love for humanity and all beings joined by a great sense of humor and the ability to bring out the best in people, always inspired me that world peace was possible.
Favourite historical figure?
Martin Luther King, Jr is the person who inspired me most since childhood. His courage, commitment to non-violence and the vision that true freedom is based on the fundamental truth we are all created equal have powerfully shaped my life.
What did you eat for dinner last night?
New Mexico green chili chicken enchilada with fresh roasted green chili's from Hatch, NM. Yummiest local food ever!
If you could give $10,000 to any organization besides your own, which would it be and why?
New Mexico Environmental Law Center would be my choice because they are tireless legal defenders for communities facing water, air and land degradation and they provide legal support for many non-profit organizations and grassroots movements throughout the Southwest.
On what occasion do you lie?
I rarely lie…am a very poor liar and am usually busted too. I am far more likely to omit information or an opinion rather than lie.
What do you think is the greatest social issue of our time?
The lack of gender, economic and natural resources equity is staggering and tragically, the inequity is growing. How we resolve this social chasm without significant violence and with ingenuity is an equally profound issue facing humanity.
What do you think is the greatest environmental issue of our time?
Climate Change will change our world and how we are able to respond will change our outcome as a species.
How do you think we can change the world?
Personal awareness and daily choices, engagement with our community and networks for change, practicing compassion, bringing commitment and courage to challenges and most of all, I feel being love transforms everything you are doing.
What book are you reading right now?
Tortuga by Rudolfo Anaya
What’s your favourite online resource for news?
Democracy Now!, The Guardian and Alternet
What’s your favourite online resource for fun?
Comedy Central
What’s your favourite blog?
Not time to blog!
What’s your personal motto?
Be present, be love and all else will follow
What makes you the most angry?
Corporate and government greed and injustice
What makes you the most happy?
When I am reminded that true beauty surrounds us in a sunset, my son’s laughter, a stranger’s smile, a bird’s lyrical song, a mother’s tears…whenever I feel total love of the moment.
Kimi Green is a nonprofit consultant working with organizations, foundations and projects seeking to create social, environmental and animal welfare equity. For 23 years, her work as a director, organizer, and advocate focuses on effective, creative community solutions advancing social and environmental equity and sustainable resource development. Currently she is working with organizations addressing animal welfare, independent media, conservation of traditional ranches and farms, water quality and integrated healthcare.

Project Survival Media - Shadia Fayne Wood on the Roots of her Work Imagine this, two seven year old girls walking on a sunny day in a beautiful green valley in a tiny town in upstate New York, where they live. They’re best friends. They play together everyday and share everything. This one day, as they are walking, they are talking of scary things—there have been kidnappings just 30 minutes from their small, safe village. One girl turns to the other girl and says matter-of-factly, “But you know, you really don’t have to worry about being kidnapped because if they were to kidnap anyone, it would be me.” The other girl is confused and asks why. And the little girl answers, “Because I have blonde hair and blue eyes and everyone knows that that is what America likes.” The girl with the brown hair stared back, confused.
These little girls are a friend of mine that I grew up with and me. I was the little hurt girl confused that on a very elemental level I was being rejected for being darker – for my dark hair, my dark eyes, and my dark(er) skin color that stood out in my predominately white community.
I remember arguing with her that the kidnappers would in fact want me that I was worth something. Looking back, I cringe thinking about that conversation—I cringe thinking about a child wanting so badly to be valuable that she would “want” to be desired by something so undesirable.
Often I am asked why I work on the environment, why I have worked on the environment since I was a child. I usually talk about how my community was impacted by nuclear waste, how cancer rates are out of control where I grew up, I usually talk about my mom and how she was an organizer. But, recently I have come to realize that I work on the environment for reasons much deeper than these external factors. I work on these issues because for so long I felt that I wasn’t allowed to be a whole person and that no matter what I did—I wouldn’t belong anywhere.
You may wonder how these two things are tied together. I did for a long time.
[caption id="attachment_4682" align="alignright" width="500"] A protest/lemonade stand we hosted on the front steps of the NYS capitol building. It garnered a lot of press about the Superfund issue because we asked our governor the question, "the children of NY are raising money for Superfund, what are you doing as governor." A year after the bill was passed.[/caption]
When I began to learn at a young age how pollution worked, I began to change. I had that quintessential awakening angering moment where injustice unveils itself, becoming undeniable.
I was nine years old when my state’s Superfund Program went bankrupt, meaning hundreds of thousands of people all over NY were now more at risk of toxic exposure and severe diseases. This is how I learned that my community wasn’t unique in it’s battles with toxic waste and government bureaucracy—that there were communities all over the country and all over the world like mine that were bearing the brunt of our toxic waste, our power plants, our water treatment facilities. Those communities happened to be either poor, or communities of color, or both. And, children from those communities are growing up in a world that tells them they are expendable and that they don't fit.
This realization joined with my own feelings of not being accepted fueled my intense desire to create communities that have room for all people to lead healthy meaningful lives.
I suppose this is the underlying ethos of all the work I do and the spirit in which I founded Project Survival Media (PSM) four years ago. PSM is a global youth media network producing photo and video documentaries on climate change issues. We focus on human stories of triumph and tribulation, putting a face to the climate crisis, and elevating voices of those most vulnerable.
[caption id="attachment_4681" align="alignleft" width="1100"] Recent protest in the Bay area around the Chevron refinery. Photo by Shadia[/caption]
Climate change is scary and is scaling faster than our solutions and our movements can keep pace with. The seasons are shifting, weather is becoming more extreme, and the world we once knew is changing before our eyes. In order to safeguard our communities and turn the tide on this huge issue, we need a movement big enough, diverse enough, and powerful enough to meet the scale of this crisis. And, to build this movement, we need compelling visual media.
The role of media in successful movements is indisputable. The question we’ve been asking ourselves is, “What is the best way to tell a story and use a story to catalyzes change?”
A few years ago we designed a program called Solutions for Survival (S4S) that we think starts to answer this question. We assemble media teams in different countries led by incredible media makers from the countries they are reporting in. These teams find inspiring stories of community leaders that are implementing equitable and replicable climate solutions. Our teams produce short video and photo documentaries on these stories in an effort to more quickly spread these solutions to those that need access to it most. We then partner with media outlets and organizations that can use these stories in their campaigns.
Our thinking is, while some of our governments are wasting precious time, we’ll do our part to create communities better equipped to deal with the climate changes already underway and motivate people around the world to dedicate their lives to stopping the extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
We currently have two teams in India and Kenya and are working to expand our program to three more countries next year. With the small sources of funding received over the years we’ve been able to slowly grow this program and two others, while becoming so much clearer on how it all works together.
There is so much in the world to worry about—the financial state of our country, women’s rights to their own bodies, access to foods that aren’t filled with chemicals and GMO's; all related to our survival as humans. And yet, there are so many powerful inspirational movements springing up around the world, where people finding a better, more humane way to live. I am so excited to do my part—to bring about a world where a child’s value is not questioned and where the water she drinks nourishes not only her body but her heart.
[caption id="attachment_4678" align="alignleft" width="300"] Shadia and her mother.[/caption]
Shadia Fayne Wood is an Arab American from upstate NY and is the founder and Director of Project Survival Media. When she was seven years old, she became involved in a campaign to address the cancer cluster in her community that was caused by nuclear waste. Though young, she was driven to spearhead what would become a successful eight-year campaign to pass state legislation to refinance the Superfund Program in New York State. The bill passed into law in 2003 and in recognition of her efforts, she received the Yoshiyama Award and the Brower Youth Award. After graduating high school, Shadia worked for the Environmental Justice & Climate Change Initiative as the youngest Campaign Coordinator in the Energy Action Coalition. She was featured in the 2007 Green Issue of Vanity Fair and is a recipient of Elle Magazine’s 2008 Green Awards. She has managed media teams for all national summits on climate change Power Shift ‘07, ‘09, and ’11 and all major Keystone XL actions.

Announcement of 2013 Makers Muse Recipients • Nao Bustamante • Cohdi Harrell • Trevor Paglen • Dread Scott •
Lorna Simpson • Erika Wanenmacher • Juice Rap News •
Hanging weightlessly from ceilings; casting spells and crafting sculptures; capturing the remote identifiers of war; burning money; rapping reportage on tendentious issues with hilarity and accuracy; taking traditional notions of culture and identity by the horns and hair; brazen stage performance and cheeky video making—these are just some of the fierce sparks of skill and talent that this year’s Makers Muse Recipients have in their pockets.
It’s our five-year anniversary for the Makers Muse Award. Half a decade and twenty-nine recipients later we could not be more proud and excited to share with you our awardees for 2013.
This group of seven is our most cross-disciplinary crew yet. Hailing from various fields, they typify the feisty spirit of this award. Each artist on this list breaks boundaries with tenacity and grace. They all show us what it can mean to be a Maker and they’ve got us on the edge of our seats.

Haymarket Books: Anthony Arnove tells us why books still matter In 2013, much of the discussion about books has become about the technology of distribution and the business of publishing. But in the midst of all of this chatter, and frequent predictions of the end of books, some fundamental truths about the resilience and importance of the book as a form of cultural expression and communication have been lost. At Haymarket Books, we are now in our eleventh year of working to make books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the education and development of a critical, engaged, international left. As a small nonprofit we have many challenges — including the frequent omission of book publishing in discussions of independent media, including at major indy media conferences — but the work has been immensely rewarding and has reaffirmed our fundamental belief that books, far from languishing or being at risk of dying off in the internet era, are remarkably resilient and relevant. Among the many reasons, I would suggest three (readers will I am sure have others):
1. The time of the book. At the core of the book form is a sustained engagement with the thought, arguments, ideas, and process of argumentation of the author or collective authors. Education at it’s root is about a drawing out, a process of dialogue (in philosophical terms, the dialectic). One can convey worlds in a poem or song of just a few lines. But the process and time of a book opens up a different type of understanding, one that is even more important in our world of atomization, hyperactivity, and short-attention-span-generating media.
2. The form of the book. We care deeply at Haymarket about every aspect of the production of our books, the typeface, font size, the leading and kerning on the page, cover design, trim size, format. The aesthetics of the book matter vitally not because of some artisanal commitment to a historic craft, but because the experience of reading is intimately bound up with the book’s form. We make every book we can available on ereaders — and any platform for reading is to be welcomed and encouraged. But we still devoted to the print book form because of what it uniquely offers. Take, for example, our book by Arundhati Roy, Field Notes on Democracy. Every essay in the book, if one wanted to sleuth, could be found on the Internet, and read online or printed out, for far less than the cost of our book (as much as we work to keep our books affordable for activists). But the experience of reading those pieces in isolation, on a computer screen, or printed out from emails, is substantively different to reading an artfully crafted hardcover, with ragged edge paper, in the time and mental space one enters into with a great book and a brilliant writer. I think that is why, when I ride the subways of New York, I still see many more people reading books than I do ereaders. And that is why ereaders are working to try to create a more aesthetic and book-like reading experience with each new design.
3. The collectivity of book reading. Reading is , on the one hand, often an extremely personal, intimate, private act. But with a great book, such as our reissue of the classic Detroit: I Do Mind Dying (now even more relevant in light of the current financial crisis and its impact on the city of Detroit), the book truly comes to life in discussion with others. One of the great things about physical books is that they remain a vital organizing tool. One can recommend a book to someone at a demonstration and they can instantly download it to an ereader. But when you show up at a protest or a conference with a table of great books that are movement resources, as we often do at Haymarket, the physical books become a center for discussion and debate, and making personal connections. A great bookstore, with a staff that is knowledgeable and passionate about books, can never be replaced by online algorithms generating links of books based on your past viewing habits, other people’s purchases, or paid advertising.
Those of us who value the unique contribution of books to education, to consciousness raising, and to movement building have to find ways to sustain and extend the culture of books, of reading, of collective discussion. This means being more conscious of supporting independent presses (and there are many wonderful ones beyond Haymarket that are also nonprofits and rely on donations, grants, and group purchases to enable their work). It means being more vigilant about supporting independent bookstores (even if the book might be available for less at some online retailer). And it also means including books in our discussions of independent media and movement building.
Anthony Arnove is an editor at Haymarket Books and is also a film producer, author, and activist based in Brooklyn.

Other Worlds' Beverly Bell Answers the Kindle Questionnaire What do you see as the greatest challenge your community is facing?
Defining our community as social movements, the greatest challenge they articulate is growing control by transnational capital over everything, from the marketing of air (through carbon trading) to governments.
What is the strongest asset of your community?
Its members, who give everything they have with courage, commitment, and faith in the belief that, if united, we can change the world.
Who are your real-life heroes in your field?
I could name enough to fill libraries, so I will use my two sentences to speak of just one close friend and real-life hero: Berta Cáceres, a Lenca leader of the land reform, indigenous rights, and democracy movements in Honduras. For her troubles, Berta’s life is currently precariously on the line, and she is living underground.
When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
Back story: I was on the staff of President Aristide of Haiti during and after the three years of a hellish US-backed coup d’état. Most fulfilled: After unquantifiable deaths and suffering, global and Haitian political pressure succeeded in reversing that coup and restoring democracy.
What is the trait you most deplore of your field?
I most deplore the violence that continually meets movement activists. An untold number of my dear friends and colleagues have been arrested and tortured, some assassinated.
What is one thing you wish the general public knew about your work?
The idea that profound transformation is possible is not a pipe dream. We know that large-scale poverty and inequity are the result of policy choices, and therefore we know that different choices can yield different outcomes.
If funding were no object, what would you do?
The exact same thing I’m doing now.
If you weren’t doing this kind of work, what would you be doing?
I couldn’t do anything else. If I weren’t doing this work, I’d be too depressed about the state of the world to keep on living.
Favourite moment at work?
My favorite moment at work is when we learn of, or get to be part of, a victory in which the odds that everything might be lost are reversed. We see repeatedly that people who have almost no resources or power can create such victories with unity, persistence, and good strategy.
Favourite song?
Ella’s Song by Sweet Honey in the Rock, named after the great civil rights leader Ella Baker. It was the theme song of the Wild Rumpus Revolutionary Summer Camp that two of my Other Worlds sisters/coworkers and I organized, in our off time, for our favorite little tykes in New Orleans last summer. (Illegal sentence three: The kiddos sometimes jazzed up the refrain with such variations as, “We who believe in lizards cannot rest until they come.”)
Favourite activist?
Of the many, one is Dennis Brutus, a close friend and extraordinary anti-Apartheid and global justice leader from South Africa. His body is dead, but his spirit and message live on powerfully.
Favourite historical figure?
My favorite historical figure will surely not be known by anyone reading this, but it is Father Antoine Adrien, a Haitian liberation theology priest and spiritual and political leader, now deceased. He took me under his wing from the time I was 21, served as my primary mentor, and continues to guide my work every day.
What did you eat for dinner last night?
I shared crab bisque - being in New Orleans - with my darling 88-year old mother.
If you could give $10,000 to any organization besides your own, which would it be and why?It would be to the Council of Indigenous and Popular Organizations (COPINH) of Honduras, run by the aforementioned Berta Cáceres. In a country with the greatest violence of any in the entire world except those at war, COPINH burns like a flame of hope for justice for indigenous peoples, campesinos, and women.
What do you think is the greatest social issue of our time?
To my mind, the greatest social issue of our time is the interconnected and skyrocketing level of poverty, inequality, hunger, and landlessness. The root cause is the same in each case: unequal distribution of wealth, resources, and power.
What do you think is the greatest environmental issue of our time?
The greatest environmental issue of our time is climate change, which is another issue fostered by the desire of profit and power. As with other problems, it is a crisis for which solutions can be found.
What book are you reading right now?
The Insufferable Gaucho by Roberto Bolaño.
What’s your favourite online resource for news?
Democracy Now! (http://www.democracynow.org/)
What’s your favourite online resource for fun?
My siblings, who send me videos and photos of my 17 beloved nieces and nephews. They rock my world with hilarity and delight.
What’s your personal motto?
We are only limited by the size of our vision.
Beverly Bell is the coordinator of Other Worlds and Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She has worked for more than three decades as an organizer, advocate, and writer in collaboration with social movements in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the U.S. Her brand-new books are Fault Lines: Views across Haiti's Divide (Cornell University Press) and Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agriculture Systems in the Americas (Other Worlds, co-authored with Tory Field).

Special Feature: New Photo Documentary Series by Fardin Waezi 2012 Makers Muse Recipient, Fardin Waezi has just shared with us some images from his new documentary photography project. The special stories below correspond with the children in the images.
http://thruafghaneyes.blogspot.com/
Documentary Photography Project
Story Name: Victims of war
Photography: FARDIN WAEZI
Story: My name is Akram. I am 13. My father’s name is Salamkhan. My father is from Jalalabad and my mother is from Karabakh. There are nine of us in the family, one sister and five brothers, my father and my mother. I lost my both of my hands in Pakistan. I went to Pakistan during civil war. My family was not well off and it was hard to live in Afghanistan during winter so we moved to Pakistan. Because we are poor we needed to collect wood for winter and once when I was collecting wood, there was a cable under woods, I did not notice it and when I touched it shocked me.
When I was shocked by electricity, I was thrown 20 or 25 meters away. There was an old restaurant there and some guy had come to eat lunch there and finally he saw me and took me and put me in the car and took me to the hospital. The hospital would not accept me because I was afghan. The guy had an ID and he was helping to put me in the hospital with his ID.
After a month, when I woke up and when I saw my hands were cut I was crying, my family was crying. There was no chance, there was only hope and I could not do anything.
After three months my family and I returned back to Kabul.
Seven years ago I returned from Pakistan and I am living in an IDP camp in front of Dalaman.
My job is to collect money, be a beggar, asking money from people.
I am responsible for the nine members of the family and I am going to collect money by begging for money and go back and help the family. And my father is little bit crazy and he can not work and only I am responsible to go and collect money and help my members of family.
I am the eldest son of Salam Khan.
I really like to study and I also like to play computer games, play on the cellphone, like to ply football and other things.
For seven years I have not received any support from the government.
My name is Alareza and I am Akram’s uncle’s son. I am 11 years old.
Akram has a lot of problems because he lost his cat and he can not play, go to work, he’s very sad.
There are a lot of tents in front of me. There are a lot of kids playing. They are in very bad condition. Akram is living under the tent.
There is a pace 100x200m place, different families put a tent and there is no place for kids to play, there are no schools, there is no water, conditions are very bad.
- Taliban will come and the war will start and no one will help us.
One of his brothers’ name is Ikramila his sister’s name is Simogol, his father’s name is Salamkhan, other bother’s name is Bilal, another brother’s name is Didar, another brother’s name is Satar, little brother’s name Ghafar, mother’s name is Zarmina.
[gallery link="file" columns="1" ids="3179,3178,3177,3176,3180"]
Biography - My name is Fardin Waezi and I was born in Kart-e-Now in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Although I am only young, I have been taking photographs for 22 years. I took my first photo with an old snapshot camera when I was seven years old in my father’s commercial portrait studio. I knew then I wanted to become a photographer because I adored my father’s profession.
There were no photo schools or colleges so over several years, with a little help from my father, I taught myself photojournalism. During the Taliban regime, a dark and stressful period for anybody trying to work as a photographer, I worked on the street outside the Ministry of the Interior making official portraits using a wooden box camera. These ID card pictures were almost the only photography that the Taliban allowed. Even then I was sometimes beaten and arrested.
I was in Kabul during the American bombing, but soon after the Taliban’s collapse in 2001, I was one of the first in the queue when I heard there would be a photojournalism course offered at 'AINA,' the Afghan Media and Culture Center.
Today, I am working in AINA This is a rare privilege that allows me to travel far and wide around the country and gain a unique overview of the economic, political and social changes in Afghanistan. Whilst it is true that my country is a place of war and terrorism, and this is what the foreign press always concentrate on when they photograph Afghanistan; it is also a place where 30 million people like me live their lives, bring up their families and have hopes and dreams.
I want the world to know my country is more than bombings and burqas.

Seed Broadcast For long-time readers of the Kindle blog, you may remember our obsession with seeds last winter, when we covered a wide range of seed related issues and grantee projects over the course of several months. Our passion and commitment to this topic has not waned. With news of seed revolutions great and small making international headlines over the past weeks, it is timely that we share with you an incredible series of interviews and perspectives from Seed Broadcast co-founders, Jeanette Hart-Mann and Chrissie Orr.
Seed Broadcast caught our attention because they were addressing the persistent problem of seed and food sovereignty in a unique and creative way. Their mandate is to explore grassroots seed actions and practices through dialogues, storytelling, story-sharing, knowledge collection and distribution. Through their website, workshops and highly innovative Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station, they are paving the way for people all over the country to contribute their stories, learn from others and increase the presence and importance of these not-to-be-ignored issues.
A small group doing much with little, their mission and actions are truly motivational. From their writing below, you’ll see what intelligent and committed women they are and learn how their creativity is fuelling and captivating their central mission. In their piece below, they share with us their personal narratives of how they began interviews from the field, and the impetus and practice that keeps them moving ever forward in their important work.
seedbroadcast.org
seedbroadcast.blogspot.com
http://vimeo.com/41974362
About
Seed Broadcast was initiated by Jeanette Hart-Mann and Chrissie Orr, at the Compartiendo Semillas, Sembrando el Futuro, Seed Exchange, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 2011, to investigate food culture in action. Exploring open pollinated seed networks, the ecology of urban and rural agricultural systems, and the meshwork of environmental concerns permeating food production today, this discursive project has become a testing ground for creative broadcasting and collective action. Engagement has included community based projects, installations, dialogues, creative actions, and experiential practices. Interdisciplinary collaboration is a founding principal of this project, where participants from diverse backgrounds work together as critical partners of inquiry, exploration, and creation.
[caption id="attachment_3143" align="alignnone" width="584"] Interviews in the Field, Cathy Kahn’s Scarlet Runner Beans, Romeroville, NM, May, 2011.[/caption]
https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/isaura-andaluz
Collaboration
Chrissie:
The first time I met Jeanette, it was at my local coffee shop where we talked and exchanged ideas for hours. It was easy and challenging and dynamic, we spoke the same language, we could agree to disagree. Two artists critically looking to new practices, both with a love and commitment to the potential held in each and every seed and in each and every community. This was the beginning.
Jeanette:
The process of collaboration and commitment to collectivity is a critical formation of SeedBroadcast. Like the ecological body of diversity and heterogeneity, it does not necessitate that we give up our subjectivity, but rather recognizes that agency is integrally connected to the work, passions, desires, and biological processes enveloping all of us. Seeds, pollination, adaptability, struggle, and action are the rhizomes of this process.
[caption id="attachment_3149" align="alignnone" width="584"] Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station visits the Hull-­‐House Urban Farm, Chicago, Illinois, July 2012.[/caption]
https://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/belinda-eriacho
Broadcasting Local Knowledge
Jeanette:
What we call knowledge is not static. It is not trickle down service from those that know to those that don’t. Instead, it is a growing complex of local beliefs and practices that are shared, applied, and persistently transformed. To be a grower of food and a saver of seed, is to engage this directly. It is to be an active cultivator of knowledge and of what we call culture. This notion of culture is essential to our collective re-creation of a popular agri-culture and the most basic human right to grow, eat, and share the healthiest food around. This is the emphatic mission of SeedBroadcast.
Chrissie:
We started where we were called, the community of Las Vegas, New Mexico where there is a tradition of local growing practices in the rural areas around this former railroad town. We visited people in their own backyard gardens, in their farms and in their dried dusty garden beds that were left bare due to the city water shortage. We shared food together in fields and community centers, we made a “How to” book and we listened to one and other. These collaborators helped to shape and mold our initial ideas for gathering and dispersing local land-based stories in to what is now the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station and networking practice.
http://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/amaranth-everlasting
Listening, Building Relationships, Belief in What we Hear
Chrissie:
We were inspired by the people we encountered who invited us to share a day in their lives who shared their beliefs in growing and owning the rights to their own seeds and food production, the struggles to do this and the tenacity to continue. The relationships we built informed our structure and inspired us to dedicate our creative capacities to push beyond our notions of “art” to explore creative ways to encourage and broadcast critical dialogues around reclaiming our seed and food sovereignty. This is what we heard.
Jeanette:
Folks from all walks of life have shared Seed Stories with us. These are usually audio recordings with corresponding photographs of seeds, gardens, or portraits: beautiful, powerful, critical, and personal stories. Yet, we also recognize, encourage, and support other forms of expressions. These stories are shared as drawings, writings, conversations, documents, objects, and always seeds. This expressive diversity broadens our capacity for listening and teaches us about the possibility of a seed, of people, and of passions. It re-formulates power in the hands and minds of people sharing these Seed Stories and produces a new site for the articulation of sovereign agri-culture.
[caption id="attachment_3152" align="alignnone" width="584"] Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station partners up with the PimaCounty Seed Libraries, Tucson, AZ, April 2013.[/caption]
http://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/sherwin-ovid-07122012
And full on Dedication
Jeanette:
Dedication and optimism go hand in hand. With all the challenges we face on a daily basis: lack of healthy food, water, land, seeds; a changing climate, and the corporate accumulation of wealth, power, and resources, who wouldn’t want to plant seeds, save seeds, and share seeds? Gardeners, farmers, seed savers, and people everywhere are inspired to play their part, beginning and continuing a long tradition to be infinitely optimistic and plant a seed.
Chrissie:
We followed our dreams. Jeanette dedicated her summer to create the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station in an old bread truck as part of her Masters in Fine Art. She travelled slowly across county from Anton Chico, New Mexico to Vermont forming partnerships and connections along the way with seed libraries, seed lovers and local food growers who shared their wisdom and stories. The Seed Story dispersal and national networking emerged into many new seed loving friends, the seedbroadcast blog and web site. I remained at home in New Mexico, actively researching and pursuing grant opportunities, (thank you Kindle) and keeping up with our local partners and collaborators.
[caption id="attachment_3153" align="alignnone" width="584"] Students from South Valley Academy, share ideas and drawings inside the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station. Albuquerque, NM, Sept 2012.[/caption]
http://soundcloud.com/seedbroadcast/justine-hernandez-librarian
When the Time is Right
Chrissie:
Our conversations started that day in the café in 2011 and I believe that the time was right. Look at us now, we have just come back from a tour of the Southwest with local visits to Anton Chico, Santa Fe, Albuquerque Bio park, Native Seeds / SEARCH, to events and seed exchanges, to schools and rural villages and to the heart of urban Phoenix. The seeds bring us together in ways that I would never have imagined. They bring the young and the wise, the experts and the beginners but all who shared their stories with us have a connection to the potential that the seed holds. In these up side down times the seed holds the potential of HOPE, new growth, nourishment and wonder. This is what we are all looking for, is it not?
Jeanette:
What else will these seeds share if I listen to their stories? As this story accumulates, it moves us to believe that every seed and every seed saver, and every grower and lover of food, have crucial stories to share. This wealth of local, practical, and creative know-how is a site of unconditional knowledge building and the frontier of truly innovative people based, food practice.
In solidarity,
SeedBroadcasters

Announcement of Spring 2013 Grantees New grantees mean new opportunities. It means new ways to look at problems and solutions. It means new inspirations, models for change, and it means new networks to explore.
Taking the ripple effect of our work evermore far and wide our grantees are making big splashes with prodigious accomplishments and progress;
• The Tar Sands Blockade is galvanizing direct, non-violent action in clever ways to oppose the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline,
• Haymarket Books has a boldly diverse line-up of book releases this month, including several books by Howard Zinn, Göran Olsson’s Black Power Mixtape:1967-1975, and Tariq Ali’s The Stalinist Legacy: It’s Impact on Twentieth Century World Politics,
• The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in partnership with Drilling Mora County accomplished the unprecedented goal of passing the first U.S. ban on fracking and oil drilling in Mora County, New Mexico,
• Project Survival Media is developing a catalogue of climate solutions from youth documentary teams around the world,
• The Yes Lab is tinkering away in the edit room on their new titillating film, The Yes Men Are Revolting. They are also working their fannies off on their Action Switchboard, a dynamic platform connecting tools and change agents. Both projects are sure to whet your civil disobedience appetite.
There’s an endless number of methods and practices that we can use to respond to the social, economic, and environmental concerns of our time. This season’s grantees, both new and alumni, are taking on solutions based approaches with a combination of youthful tenacity and tried and true wisdom.
Kindle Project Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation is pleased to introduce you to our lineup of inspiring change-makers for our Spring 2013 Grant Cycle.

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) first became of interest to us when we heard about their Democracy School program. The Democracy School is an accessible and in-depth training for participants to become competent in the rules and regulations around building their own healthy, self-governed communities. For those whose lives and lands are under serious threat by laws that favor corporations over people and nature the CEDLF Democracy School is one of the most important and invaluable resources we've come across.
Last year, two Kindle Project staff members attended a Democracy School in New Mexico. They came back with a wealth of knowledge, but also with a greater understanding of the kinds of barriers that most of us face when acting as community and environmental advocates.
The video below tells the story of how the Pennock family lost their sixteen year old son, Daniel, to health complications from walking past fields of toxic sludge on a daily basis. Daniel’s father described the need for the Democracy Schools in a perfectly succinct way: “People don’t understand what their rights are.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i1s_rE1VR64#!
Paving the way for personal, community and collective empowerment and decision-making, CELDF’s work is truly a revolutionary offering.
Below, you’ll read a more in depth explanation of their programs and a special interview between CELDF’s Emelyn Lybarger and Alexis Eynon, who attended a Democracy School in New Hampshire. They share a compelling and personal testimony to the importance and effectiveness of CEDLF’s work.
If your community, or the community of someone you know, is facing serious land and health threats due to corporate interests in fracking, hydrocarbon extraction, and toxic sludge (to name a few) you will want to visit the CELDF website. There are ways that they can help!
•••
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is a public interest law firm that conducts grassroots organizing to advance community rights and sustainability. Their mission is to build sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature. They work with communities across the country facing corporate threats such as shale gas drilling and fracking, unsustainable agriculture, and unsustainable energy development, providing assistance in grassroots organizing, public education and outreach, and the drafting of ordinances.
As part of their work, they teach Democracy Schools, which are weekend workshops that lay the educational groundwork for their organizing. As the only organization assisting communities to ban harmful corporate activities by addressing our larger structure of law that elevates corporate “rights” over community rights, the Democracy Schools are central to CELDF’s work.
In the Democracy Schools, CELDF examines why corporations, hand-in-hand with government, are able to override local, democratic decision-making even on activities as harmful as drilling and fracking. They explore how it is that we live under a constitutional structure of law that purposefully places the rights of property and commerce over the rights of people, communities, and nature. And further, they examine why communities facing unwanted corporate activities such as fracking, find that their state environmental agencies, rather than helping them stop fracking, are instead issuing permits to corporations to frack.
The Democracy Schools also explore what other communities are doing as they come to understand how our structure of law and governance puts the interests of corporations over and above the interests of people, communities, and nature – standing in the way of community self-governance and sustainability.
Whether a community faces drilling and fracking, the privatization of its water, sludging of its farmland, factory farming, or a host of other corporate harms, the structural barriers in place preventing the community from stopping such threats are the same. So rather than fighting individual “site fights” again and again, CELDF’s work has evolved to concentrate on building a grassroots movement aimed at changing our structure of law and governance from one that protects and promotes commerce and corporations, to a structure that secures and defends the rights of people, communities, and nature to achieve environmental sustainability and local democracy.
The Democracy Schools help reveal how this structure of law works, and from there, help communities “re-frame” the threat they face from a solitary “site fight,” to a broader structural problem whereby our legal system protects fracking and the rights of corporations to frack (or sludge, factory farm, etc.) over the interests of communities and nature.
Unsustainable Energy: A Community and Civil Rights Issue
An interview by Emelyn Lybarger of CELDF
[caption id="attachment_3062" align="alignleft" width="300"] CELDF's Emelyn Lybarger[/caption]
Alexis Eynon, from Thornton, NH, learned about CELDF and our Democracy Schools from neighboring communities organizing to stop the Northern Pass - an energy development project including 180-miles of high transmission wires and steel towers reaching 140 feet in height, creating a permanent scar on some of New Hampshire’s most pristine locations.
Alexis teaches art at a middle school near her home. Like many others, she moved to Thornton – into a home she built herself – because of the area’s stunning landscape and easy access to the outdoors. Home for 1,800 residents, it’s a small New England town, with a local economy based on tourism. The Northern Pass would be devastating to the community.
Alexis recognized the threat Northern Pass posed, and began educating herself so she could help stop it. In November 2011 she listened to Democracy School on-line and attended two more Schools.
We interviewed Alexis to ask her about the impact CELDF and Democracy School had on her and the organizing she did in Thornton.
CELDF: Why did you attend a Democracy School?
Alexis: I heard about the Northern Pass and began researching it. What I learned did not bode well for our community—we are already seeing property values plummet, and a realty office recently closed nearby.
I heard about rights-based ordinances being presented and adopted in surrounding communities, like Plymouth, Sugar Hill, and Easton. Those ordinances established community rights to clean air, water, local self-governance, and a sustainable energy future. I wanted that for Thornton.
CELDF: How did attending Democracy School impact you?
Alexis: What I learned in Democracy School certainly wasn’t Social Studies I learned in 7th grade! It became clear why we don’t have a democracy and why corporations get away with causing harm to our communities. It was eye-opening: This is how our society operates, and this was the intention of the “founding fathers” all along – a society based on commerce, regardless of cost.
As I watched other communities trying to stop Northern Pass through traditional regulatory avenues, such as attending hearings, and compared that to communities focusing on rights-based organizing, I could see what Democracy School taught, playing out.
The impact it had on me was that I had to do something – and CELDF’s rights-based organizing is actionable and challenges the status quo in a way that traditional organizing does not.
[caption id="attachment_3066" align="alignleft" width="584"] Campton Pond/Dam & Welch-Dickey - Part of the beautiful region that Alexis is working to protect[/caption]
In my town, I witnessed folks speaking against Northern Pass, but doing nothing to stop it. I had to run a rights-based ordinance because otherwise Northern Pass will kill our town! I began working with our Select Board and walking door to door. Some folks were very supportive, while others just didn’t seem to care. It was frustrating. But CELDF was helpful in educating and strategizing with us, and we received support from neighboring communities who have done this work.
Our ordinance didn’t pass at Town Meeting last month. But I think it’s paved the way for next year—it brought a lot of attention to the issue, and our reframing it from being just about one project to actually being a civil rights issue has gained traction.
CELDF: What were the top two things you learned in Democracy School?
Alexis: This unsustainable development, costing us our communities, is intentional. And today, haven’t we come full circle? Aren’t we now in the place the revolutionaries were in when they threw off the yoke of England?
Also, this IS a civil rights issue! Why can’t we say NO to what we don’t want and YES to what we do want? Why do corporations have more “rights” than we do? It’s NOT RIGHT!
CELDF: Why are you committed to doing this work?
Alexis: This is my home – I care about this place and the people here. I care about the injustices happening to communities across the country, and they are unacceptable to me and must be stopped. It won’t be stopped, though, until hundreds of people like us stand up and make it stop. I’m adding my voice to the collective yell.
CELDF: What do you envision for your community?
Alexis: I envision conversations in Thornton about our values, what we care about, why our energy future is so critical. I want us talking about what things are going to look like in seven years and in twenty years. What do we want? What are we willing to fight for? Let’s put the rubber to the road and start moving and start doing something about this.
Alexis is one of the founders of the New Hampshire Community Rights Network, a statewide organization established to bring together coalitions across the state doing rights-based organizing. This network of communities will drive community rights into the New Hampshire state constitution. To learn more about CELDF, Democracy School, and the Community Rights Networks, visit our website: www.celdf.org.

Center for Genomic Gastronomy Over the past few years, a unique cultural climate has developed around food. Food obsession, facilitated largely through a boom in network TV cooking programs, countless online food bloggers, and a rise in artisanal quality food products (and even home producers), has become so commonplace that a new sect of society has been born: ‘foodies’. This vast audience with a cult-like devotion to food has elevated chefs to celebrity status, and created an incredible network of people all tuned-in to revere and receive any information they can about the innovative uses of food.
Simultaneously, the food justice movement has gained leverage and expanded exponentially, and the timing and setting could not be more primed for broadcasting their message. With Community Supported Agriculture continuing to gain in popularity and the work around California’s Proposition 37 in 2012, to name just a couple examples, the movement has a broad reach. The culture of food and the need to pay attention to its transformations is at the forefront of the mission of the Center for Genomic Gastronomy (CGG). By capitalizing on both the trends of the foodie movement and the urgency of the food justice movement they are raising awareness about the hazards of biotechnology in our food system in amazingly creative ways.
By taking a systems approach to food, and combining that with their background in biohacking, the brains behind the CGG are nudging us to consider food in ways we never have. They have taken this weird science under the microscope, and broadcast its gritty truths with social and environmental relevance.
The CGG’s work is exceptional, in that it encourages us not only to think about and understand the effects of the potentially hazardous and altered food we’re eating, but to actually eat it. In their TEDXDublin talk, CGG co-founders said, “when you change people’s tastes, you change their assumptions and expectations.” By combining art, food and technology in such phenomenon’s as glow in the dark sushi, these folks are breaking the barriers of food justice education and information sharing in ways that we’ve never seen.
In this video we get a glimpse into how to interact with some of CGG recipes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JhJ0MsOGqpo
Below, one of the CGG’s co-founders, Zack Denfield, explains to us their latest endeavors and projects. The bizarre and fascinating works of this group are constantly asking us to question the origins and the futures of the foods we eat.
•••
FoodPhreaking & Cobalt-60 Sauce
by Zack Denfeld
The Center for Genomic Gastronomy is an independent research institute that explores the genomes and biotechnologies that make up the human food systems on planet earth. Our mission is to map food controversies, prototype alternative culinary futures, and imagine a more sustainable, just, biodiverse and beautiful food system. The Center presents its research through public lectures, publications, meals and exhibitions.
So far in 2013 we have been primarily conducting research, and are now starting the process of bringing this new body of research out of the studio and into the world. In addition to running a pop-up food hacker lab in Portland, Oregon in May and June we are currently scheduled to exhibit our projects publicly at the Portuguese Architecture Triennale in September and the San Jose Museum of Art in October.
What follows are snapshots of two projects. The first project, Cobalt-60 Sauce, documents an historical food controversy that is not very well known. The second project, FoodPhreaking, is a new publication we are releasing that looks at current food practices as a guide for imagining open source food cultures of the near future.
COBALT 60 SAUCE
The Center for Genomic Gastronomy is very interested in documenting and reexamining the hype, hope and controversies that surrounded food & biotechnology in the recent past. Cobalt-60 Sauce is a project that examines mutation breeding, and documents some of the radiation-bred plant varieties that are served as food on a regular basis. We have written a bit about mutation breeding, and have created work with and about mutagenic varieties, but this is the first time that we will bring together many mutagenic plants to grow an cook with.
The hype and hope surrounding mutation breeding in the 1950s and 1960s parallels more recent developments in the life sciences, including transgenics and synthetic biology. Starting in the 1950s novel plant varietals have been created by exposing plants to radioactive materials such as Cobalt-60, with the hopes of inducing "interesting" mutations, and thereby speeding up the slow process of selective breeding. After being exposed to radiation, mutagenic plant varietals were chosen based primarily on observable phenotypical characteristics. Compared to synthetic biology and transgenics, this process of designing life was much less instrumentalized and precise.
Today, many mutagenic plant varieties have been approved for sale as food but their history is largely unknown by the general public, and even by contemporary biotechnologists. Luckily, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) keeps records of the many mutation bred varieties that have been created by different countries. The Center's project, Cobalt-60 Sauce, is a barbecue sauce made exclusively from mutation bred plants that were exposed to Cobalt-60 and which can be found in IAEA's META database.
We are bringing this research to the public in the form of an installation. The Cobolt-60 Sauce installation has four main components. On one table, mutagenically bred plant varieties (such as Todd Mitcham's Peppermint) will be growing. The second table will showcase a 3D landscape model of a larger demonstration garden proposal. The third table will exhibit a crate of the Cobolt-60 Sauce. The packaging lists the mutagenic plant varietals that are used to make the sauce and points to the IAEA's META database. A warning label explains that the mutation-bred plant ingredients have not gone through the rigorous human or environmental health testing that many commercialized transgenic plant varieties undergo. Is this risk acceptable? Lastly, there will be a screen on the wall showing a film that presents the history of mutagenic breeding.
We are interested to see how collecting these disparate plants in one demonstration garden, and one sauce leads to new conversations and critiques. The idea of trying to 'Engineer Biology' is not a new one, and Cobalt-60 Sauce offers an opportunity to pause and consider one historical precedent as we continue to debate emerging biotechnologies.
FOODPHREAKING
One goal of our organization is to make connections between gastronomy, ecology and open culture. The FoodPhreaking journal is a publication that aims to connect foodies who care about sustainability with scientists and hackers who care about open culture. For the first issue (Issue #0) we decided to collect 40 concise examples of what FoodPhreaking might be, and what it most definitely is not. Regular readers of the Center's blog supplied us with links to examples of critical amateurs and hobbyists obsessed with exploring the food system, and recent failures in the global food system. These examples have been grouped into themes such as Culinary Civil Disobedience and Proprietary Food Science.
FoodPhreaking issue #0 is currently being printed using a 2-color risograph process with gold and neon pink ink. We love well crafted print publications that inspire readers who are moved by flipping through ink on paper. However, for ease of use and distribution a creative-commons-licensed digital version of the book will also appear on our website later this month.
Here are a few of the page spreads:
We hope you are in touch if you run into interesting examples that we should include in future issues of the FoodPhreaking journal.
Cobalt-60 Sauce looks at a controversy from the recent past and FoodPhreaking examines the present to imagine a better food future. These are just two of the projects that are migrating from research phase to dissemination phase. You can follow many more upcoming projects by visiting our website or joining our mailing list.

Yansa So often in our top-down instant-gratification culture, singular and simple solutions are employed to address multifaceted and complex problems. For sick people, we have pills from big pharmaceutical companies. For debt problems associated with consumerism we have credit cards. For global warming, however, many of us seem to understand it to be a fairly ornate issue. Perhaps the top down approach is not going to fit the bill on this one, unless the large companies at the top have some way to profit from the action and implement streamlined solutions.
There is a real and imminent threat of mega-corporations using new renewable energy technology for their own fiscal benefit often leaving local communities in the dust (as we’re seeing in Brazil and Canada to name just a couple examples). Smart methods of practical change that involve everyone are of utmost importance – and this is what drew us so strongly to Yansa’s work.
Yansa’s mission is to provide communities with the means, tools and training to operate their own wind farms. Providing technology, training and capital, they help communities to invest in and use their own sustainable energy sources. The electricity generated from the wind farms is sold to the national grid of the host country, bringing profits straight back to the community. Yansa, has figured out how to solve problems on multiple levels. Through their intelligent and effective pairings of mixing environmental sustainability, responsible investing opportunities, and helping to build strong social structures, Yansa is a true champion of innovation across sectors.
Below, Yansa’s Development Coordinator, Amy Spellman, shares her personal narrative of how she came to work for such a special organization and the professional and personal revelations she’s had along the way being a part of this group. Her awareness of this multi-layered approach and her thoughts on why they are so important point straight back to Yansa’s mission.
Yansa’s projects are humble in scale, authentic in spirit, and immense in impact. Check out their website for more information.
Reflections and Updates from the Field
by Amy Spellman
When a group of friends that shared a concern for social, economic and environmental justice issues came together to form Yansa, their vision was to use it as a vehicle to drive a just transition to renewable energy through community-based projects. These projects would serve to empower marginalized communities through a model that expanded economic opportunities and emphasized social impacts. From the beginning, our team has been ever expanding and includes many different types of people; indigenous activists, wind development experts, social impact investors, academics, and it’s our diversity that enables us to create successful partnerships and sustainable projects.
I joined the team in 2011 after stumbling upon a job board post for summer interns at Yansa. I had little free time but Yansa’s profile matched so perfectly with my background and passions that I applied anyway. Writing this blog as Yansa’s Development Coordinator, I have managed to expand that two-month internship opportunity into two years of experience and engagement that have been pivotal to my own growth. I am fortunate to be involved with each Yansa project, in cultivating the rich relationships that come along with this work and in seeing some of the original goals of our founding members translate into concrete successes.
Our initial Yansa project began in the city of Ixtepec, an indigenous community in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Before the formation of Yansa, co-founder Sergio Oceransky had lived in Denmark and Germany, where he witnessed the success of community-base wind farms in Europe. He was instantly convinced of the potential for viable community wind projects in indigenous and other historically oppressed communities and founded Yansa to realize this idea. During a trip to Oaxaca, in Southern Mexico, he saw how wind corporations were violating indigenous peoples’ rights and taking over their land. He moved to Oaxaca to provide access to information and support to communities fighting to regain control over their land. Community leaders then approached Sergio, proposing a partnership to building a community-owned wind farm in Ixtepec.
For its part in the partnership, Yansa provides the technical, managerial, and financial assistance required for the wind farm. In return, the community would be the backbone of the project, engaged in every step and eventually taking over full operation. They would direct the process throughout all phases of development and implementation, which would include social and economic programming supported by profits from the wind farm.
This distinct collaborative development model, defined by partnership and long-term sustainability is what truly inspired me when I joined Yansa and it is what has kept me dedicated and engaged ever since. Community partnership and localized ownership are essential components of our projects and differentiate them from others in the wind development field. Our community partnerships foster trust and transparency while ensuring the fundamental economic, cultural and political rights of the community members we work with.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6prYIiA5CtQ
Community collaboration has been a rewarding and successful process but it has not come without challenges. In the early stages of our project in Ixtepec, we discovered a strikingly low rate of participation by women in decision-making processes or governing bodies, especially associated with land use. This was in part due to land ownership historically being passed through men who have traditionally worked the land. To make our process truly inclusive we insisted on finding a way to engage women in the project without disrespecting the existing norms and social fabric. Segio was adamant that the wind was a collective resource that belonged to everyone, not just those who own the land. He insisted that in order to proceed with the partnership, all stakeholders, including women and other non-landowning groups, must have an opportunity to participate in the process. To address this, we proposed the creation of the Women’s Forum that would convene regularly to discuss issues connected to the project making their voices heard in decisions involving the wind farm. The male dominated governing bodies were receptive to this and together with Yansa, they helped commence the very first meeting of the Women’s Forum.
The forum is the first independent women’s organization ever formed in Ixtepec outside of religiously or politically affiliated groups. This represents an important transition to a more inclusive process of participation for women in the community. Initially driven and guided by Yansa’s staff, the forum is now completely self-sufficient, with a core group of dedicated women meeting every week to ensure their involvement within the decision-making and community collaboration process continues.
Reflecting on the success of the Women’s Forum in writing this blog has been inspirational. My work from home can sometimes feel isolated from events on the ground. I can get bogged down in emails and deadlines and forget why I have committed myself to this collective effort. I am appreciating, perhaps for the first time, that what seem like small victories are actually concrete, tangible changes that my colleagues and I hope to inspire. Our original mission was to support a ‘just transition’ to renewable energy but to really achieve such a monolithic goal we need to support many small ‘just transitions.’ Transitions that allow once marginalized voices to participate fully in decision-making processes that effect their lives, making partnerships more equitable and fair; these are the small advances that can catalyze larger, structural change and build a foundation that supports durable and sustainable models for change in the future.

Women on Waves International Women’s Day just passed on March 8th. A “holiday” that feels only half resonant with some of us on the Kindle Project team. We’re an organization founded by women, and staffed primarily by women. Over the years we have supported and partnered with many organizations that work on women’s issues, and because of this we also know how much work still needs to be done to elevate women’s roles in almost every level of society.
The issue of access is particularly pressing. In the case of this week’s grantee feature we hear from the Women on Waves (WOW) Director, Rebecca Gomperts, about the issues around internet and information access for women.
WOW’s work is all about bringing access to women – access to safe and legal abortions, access to accurate information about medical abortion, and access to support and sexual health information. In addition, they spread many of these messages through direct action campaigns.
Last autumn, WOW held a campaign in Morocco in which they brought their ship (which offers safe medical abortion services) to the port in Smir. Though they faced severe resistance and scrutiny (and were ultimately not able to offer direct services on the ship because of this controversy) they took it upon themselves to use the opportunity to bring more awareness and education to these essential women’s health issues by creating a safe abortion hotline. Their nimbleness, and astute knowledge of international law, human rights and media tactics are in large part of what allows them to be as successful and influential as they are.
Those that work at WOW are some of the most impactful and empowering risk-takers we know. They are true champions of social and reproductive justice. When we know that thousands of women every day all over the world are having abortions and often in very unsafe conditions, it astounds us that more groups like WOW don’t exist, that there aren’t more people willing to take these risks to protect the rights of women internationally. Moreover, in this internet age, access to accurate information about women’s health is an essential right to protect. We are grateful to learn more about this timely and extremely relevant work from Rebecca below. She illustrates a very clear picture of the current global movement for women’s reproductive rights and how the access to information is an essential piece needed in order to continue to move things forward for women everywhere.
Reflections on Internet Access, Medical Abortions and Women's Rights
by Rebecca Gomperts
[caption id="attachment_2989" align="alignleft" width="300"] One of WOW's ship campaigns: http://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/2582/ship-campaigns[/caption]
After medical abortion was invented in France, France's Minister of Health, Claude Evin at that time, declared it the moral property of women in 1988 after the pharmaceutical company tried to take it off the market under pressure from anti-abortion groups.¹
A medical abortion with a combination of two medicines, Mifepristone and Misoprostol is a very safe and effective method of abortion and has a success rate of approximately 95% to 98%. Very few serious complications result from medical abortions (World Health Organization (WHO), 2012). Mifepristone and Misoprostol have been on the list of essential medicines of the WHO since 2005.
Unfortunately, Mifepristone could not be registered in most countries where abortion is illegal (in almost all South American, African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries but also in three European countries - Poland, Ireland and Malta). However women in Brazil discovered that a medical abortion could also be done with Misoprostol alone. Although the use of Misoprostol alone is safe, the failure rate is almost 10% to 15%. But ever since, home use of medical abortion with Misoprostol alone by women themselves is increasing in countries where abortion services are unavailable. Misoprostol is registered in almost all countries for use against gastric ulcers and prevention of heavy bleeding after giving birth.
It is well documented that in countries where abortion is illegal, women risk their health and their lives to obtain clandestine abortions from unqualified persons in unhygienic conditions. According to the World Health Organization, 19 million women experience an unsafe abortion every year and 48,000 women die from complications of unsafe abortion each year. The development of medical abortion has been very important because it gives women the possibility to take their lives in their own hands again, independent of the legality of abortion and the availability of trained abortion providers. The health consequences are similar to a spontaneous miscarriage and most women deal with these themselves. In the rare case of a complication, this is almost never life threatening. The use of medical abortion is safer than the use of Penicillin or Viagra. Access to information about the medicines to do an abortion is lifesaving.
Coincidently the public start of the Internet (1991) happened at almost the same time as the introduction of medical abortion (1988). In the past 20 years the Internet has grown exponentially and has become a major source of information for people all over the world. This also spurred the practice of telemedicine and later attempts to regulate it. So it is not surprising that women around the world started to use the Internet to access information about abortion services as well. This is reflected in the many discussion forums and online sales of Misoprostol and/or Mifepristone. Unfortunately there are many sites that provide wrong information and/or sell fake medicines without any information. These kind of fake services severely abuse women’s vulnerability and put women’s lives at risk.
[caption id="attachment_2987" align="alignleft" width="300"] Screenshot of Women on Web site: www.womenonweb.org[/caption]
In 2004, Women on Waves (a Dutch non-profit organization) was the first to publish instructions for women about “how to safely do an abortion yourself” with the use Misoprostol alone on its website. Although Misoprostol is registered in most countries, the organization learned through its email helpdesk that a lot of women cannot easily obtain Misoprostol or in some cases the abortion attempt failed. A new project called Women on Web was initiated to support women in countries where there are no safe abortion services. On the Women on Web website, women can do an interactive web-based medical consultation. The answers to the online consultation are reviewed by a doctor. If there are no contraindications, a woman with an unwanted pregnancy till nine weeks can receive a medical abortion that is delivered by courier or mail to her home address. Women are closely guided in the process through a helpdesk in 12 different languages. The helpdesk now answers over 100,000 emails per year. Scientific research about the Women on Web service showed that outcomes of care are in the same range as other medical abortion services. Internet and medical abortion were both revolutions in support of human rights.
While the Internet has the potential to support the freedom of information, the abortion pill has the potential to improve the health and lives of women. Unfortunately, as after every revolution that increases people’s freedoms, governments immediately started adapting and implementing regulations to keep it under control.
In most countries very strict regulations apply as to where and by whom the abortion pill can be provided.
The Internet is now used by governments for surveillance; breaching the human right to privacy of its citizens instead of guaranteeing the freedom of information. Fortunately, initiatives like Wikileaks can still also hold governments accountable for their actions.
Access to information on the Internet is now controlled by big companies like Google, which censors the available information. In 2008 Google wrote a notice that they had revised policy and would stop ads about safe abortion information that we used to reach out to women. We were surprised. This was information about life saving medicines. It turned out that Google decided to ban all ads with the word abortion.
The Health Equity and Law Clinic, Faculty of Law of the university of Toronto decided to take action and they wrote Google a letter expressing concerns about the adverse effect of the Revised Policy for women seeking safe and lawful abortion services. We argued that by restricting access to information, the Revised Policy may contribute to unsafe abortion in a manner inconsistent with human rights principles. Access to information – the right to seek, receive and impart information on health issues – is a key determinant of access to health care. The Internet is a primary health information source. It is of particular importance to individuals who lack access to traditional sources of health information, require confidential and timely access to information, and seek services outside of their communities. Online advertisements that promote abortion services can improve access to information on the legal status of abortion and the availability of lawful services, and can thereby reduce recourse to unsafe abortion. In the letter we also respectfully requested the policy be reviewed and rescinded. Of course we never received a response.
(Full letter can be read http://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/2310/pdf-letter-google)
Just a few weeks ago we decided to try again to place an ad in Arabic to be able to reach women in the Middle East with life saving information. But again Google disapproved the ad.
So to protect our freedom to information we all need to seriously start looking for alternative browsers and other Internet services on a large scale. We need to take our violations of the rights to privacy by governments very serious. We should all start using Tor to anonymize our Internet use. Just as a principle. Because only if we all start doing that, the Internet will still have the capacity to support our human right to freedom of information.
¹http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/29/world/france-ordering-company-to-sell-its-abortion-drug.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
www.womenonwaves.org

Center for Court Innovation At Kindle we’re always looking for projects that take a new approach to existing problem. Peacemaking in many forms is also a perpetual interest of ours. We have supported an array of peacemaking projects over the years. For example, with the Salam Institute for Peace and Justice we saw how Mohammed Abu-Nimer took peacemaking from academia to the Middle East. With Be Present, we’ve learned how personal and social change stem from internal peacemaking. Now, with the Center for Court Innovation’s (CCI) new Peacemaking Program we’re learning how one organization is taking a traditional peacemaking approach and applying it to the court system in Redhook, Brooklyn.
Meshing a Native American method of problem solving with the contemporary court system, CCI’s unique modus operandi intrigued us. How could this work? What judge would agree to this? Could lawyers really be trained in peacemaking? These questions were not skeptical in nature, but rather came more from a place of genuine curiosity.
By training community members as peacemakers to offer their services to court cases involving young adults and teens, CCI practices this alternative adjudication process publicly, demonstrating a model of healing and community restoration within a system accustomed to models of power and opposition. With one formal process already underway, the CCI’s program is making big headway in the Brooklyn community. All involved participate on a voluntary basis, and this in itself an alterative model to traditional justice systems.
Below, CCI’s Peacemaking Program Director, Erika Sasson, has shared with us her story of transitioning from being a criminal prosecutor in Canada to her current work spearheading this unique project. Erika’s words serve not only as testimony of how we can bring peacemaking into court systems, but also as a testament to how effective these methods are. This work is breaking the molds of what we imagine justice to be, and is reshaping them.
Red Hook Peacemaking Program: A different voice
by Erika Sasson
I’m currently sitting in the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Once a catholic school, the building is now home to an innovative courthouse, one that specializes in applying new solutions to some age-old problems. One of the newest solutions we’re testing is our Peacemaking Program. It’s a Native American-inspired approach to conflict resolution that we’re using to resolve criminal cases. Our program came into being after years of work with Native American tribes in the United States, and through the mentorship and generosity of many tribal judges and peacemakers who encouraged us to pursue the study and implementation of peacemaking.
Over the course of many months, we trained local volunteers to become peacemakers, and those volunteers are now working on their first cases. If the case has a victim (i.e. an assault between brothers or neighbors), our peacemakers will bring the conflicting parties together to discuss what happened and seek a consensus resolution; or, if it’s a crime against the community (drug sale, prostitution, etc.) the peacemakers work with the defendant to develop strategies for moving forward and out of a life of crime. At the start of each session, everyone is invited to share a light meal, in order to relax our participants and bring everyone together.¹ The peacemakers then open the discussion with a non-religious ceremony to set the tone, such as a moment of silence. The peacemakers ask questions in order to understand the incident, as well as the background and any underlying issues. Each person is given the chance to speak, and slowly the peacemakers help the participants move towards a concrete resolution by way of consensus.
[caption id="attachment_2975" align="alignnone" width="1100"] Peacemakers in Redhook, Brooklyn. Leader of the program, Erika Sasson is pictured on the bottom row second from the left.[/caption]
Although we’re just at the beginning of this journey, our peacemakers have already demonstrated the extent to which they have internalized the approach to peacemaking taught by our Navajo mentors, including listening, showing empathy, sharing personal stories and scolding when necessary. Our peacemakers are also committed to the notion that the solution must originate with the participants--defendants and victims--for it to be long-lasting.
Although I find this work intuitive, my own path to peacemaking actually began in the conventional adversarial courtroom. My first job out of law school was for the Canadian federal government, where I eventually became a criminal prosecutor, mostly dealing with drug cases, and often involving small to medium-sized gangs, as well as guns. I worked in a very busy courthouse and learned to process cases as fast as I could. Even though the volume was tremendous, I was lucky to have a supervisor who instilled in her front-line prosecutors the importance of doing the right thing (as quickly as possible, of course).
Spending days and nights in a courthouse, I learned about how we organize our society and the inflated role played by the criminal justice system. Many of us suffer from a host of social ills, personality conflicts, physical and mental illness, addiction, power and abuse, and somehow these issues are packaged and rolled up into a singular notion of crime, and sent to the courts to solve. Needless to say, our criminal justice system can only do so much. Despite the best of intentions, it is necessarily limited in the types of remedies at its disposal, and in its ability to penetrate the surface, especially given the high volume.
In the course of prosecuting, I also learned about myself, and the kinds of interactions that appealed to me. I was, on the one hand, seduced by the power dynamics of the courthouse, especially the degree of power exercised by the prosecuting authority. But, as time went on, I began to seek different types of interactions with the people whose lives were being affected by our criminal process.
The courtroom is designed for the prosecutor to speak directly to a judge, most often with her back to the defendant. I started to feel that like I couldn’t keep talking about someone without even making eye contact. I began to give my back ever so slightly to the judge, in order to face the defendant when speaking about her. I began to ask defense counsel to hear more about the people they were representing, and subsequent to sentencing, I would want to know how people were faring. I started to realize what a small piece of the picture I was getting, and I felt that the process placed too much emphasis on separation.
A few years later, and before embarking on the peacemaking project, I came by Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice. I had read the book a few years earlier, but I had a new opportunity to revisit it, and the words jumped out at me. In the book, which examines young Amy and Jake and their perceptions of the world around them, Gilligan wrote that Amy’s world was “a world of relationships and psychological truths where an awareness of the connection between people gives rise to a recognition of responsibility for one another, a perception of the need for response.”²
[caption id="attachment_2976" align="alignnone" width="1100"] Program Participants.[/caption]
Since joining the Center for Court Innovation’s Tribal Justice Exchange in 2011, I can finally incorporate into my work with the courts “an awareness of the connection between people.” Peacemaking is, in a sense, that different voice. It allows our communities to recognize the connections between people and the responsibility we have for one another. By seeking to respond as a community to the problems we share, to restore relationships that have been damaged by crime, to resolve problems using consensus, to focus on listening to the stories underlying the issues, we allow an opportunity for different types of solutions. Although I’m still a firm believer that the courtroom is necessary to establish boundaries for certain types of cases and offenders, I’m grateful to be working with a different voice.
¹ We are indebted to the Kindle Project for providing the funds to ensure we can provide food at each peacemaking session.
² Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982) p.30
http://www.courtinnovation.org/

Center for Land Use Interpretation As you’ve likely heard, a meteor landed on Earth last Friday. As I write this, people in Russia and Kazakhstan are dealing with the bizarre aftermath of this otherworldly event, a stark reminder of the fragility of the planet we live on. For decades to come, Russian and Kazak kids will perhaps revel in hunting for meteorites, relics of this disturbing albeit natural incident.
It is only natural for human beings to take an interest in collecting tokens of matter that have fallen from the sky, real and tangible pieces of natural history. However, what happens when our fragile planet is marked not only by out of orbit incidences, but by what we do to our planet ourselves? What about the relics that get left behind from our experiments? And not only what happens with them, but what can they teach us about the past and about where we’re headed?
Enter the field of Aviation Archaeology, a fascinating emerging field of study exploring the connection between land and sky, and how aviation experiments from the past have impacted and been documented in the planet’s landscape. The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), a self-ascribed “research organization involved in exploring, examining, and understanding land and landscape issues”, is making a public display of Aviation Archaeology’s findings in their most recent exhibition, Down to Earth: Experimental Aircraft Crash Sites of the Mojave, taking place in Los Angeles, CA.
CLUI is a champion of questioning and documenting the United States’ terrain. They look at the landscape of the country and dissect it. They take forgotten fields and locations and make them known. They investigate the bizarre places that we, as humans, have altered, and make them part of the American landscape. They are creating a map for the seen and unseen oddities of this transforming planet, a map of human impact on Earth, in our country.
CLUI’s mission and how they execute it is nothing short of a wonder. Their website’s incredibly interactive Land Use Database is just one example of how they effectively educate the public of their work in ways that are at once creative, engaging and historical. Supporting them felt so important to us because we had never heard of anything like it. They’ve taken on the arduous task of being archivists in ways that few others are. They are also the point at which independent historians and archeologists (like Peter W. Merlin, described below) can converge to share their unique work. As we continue to need to ask the questions about what we’re doing to our planet, why we are doing it, and what the consequences will be, CLUI is helping us find these vital and obscure answers.
Below, Matthew Coolidge (Director, CLUI) writes about the Down to Earth exhibit, and teaches us why Aviation Archaeology is an important field to pay attention to.
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Down to Earth: Thoughts on Airplane Crash Sites and Aviation Archeologists
by Matthew Coolidge, Director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation
The Center for Land Use Interpretation addresses a wide range of topics. Since all human activity plays out on (or over, or under) the ground, everything humans do can be considered from a “land use” perspective, if you consider the term very literally, as we do. From this infinity of possibilities, we select themes to explore through our programming based on a number of criteria, some objective, some maybe less so, but always because they seem relevant to the conditions and times we are in, as a society, today. They often deal with the technologies of the modern world that sustain our way of life, and examine their effects on the land, culture, and collective psyche, hopefully revealing new perspectives and notions about things we take for granted, or do not think about much at all.
Aerospace, and the "sky/land" interface, is one of a few dozen recurring subjects for us, since its direct and indirect impacts are one of the dominant features of contemporary life in a global world. It’s a technology that can seem abstract and esoteric, so we often try to bring it “down to earth,” as they say, to address it by finding actual, physical places, which can be visited, that can be “ground truthed,” to tell the story. And we try and find new and unusual ways in to a subject, often by finding experts in the field who are driven more by passion, then by economics.
[caption id="attachment_2956" align="alignnone" width="1100"] Crash sites are usually remote, and sometimes have an area that is noticeably bare, like this one, near Harper Dry Lake, west of Barstow, California, where a supersonic B-1 bomber prototype crashed in 1984. CLUI photo, 2012.[/caption]
A good example is a new exhibit we just opened at our space in Los Angeles, about experimental aircraft crash sites in the Mojave Desert. The exhibit depicts and describes eleven incidents, selected to represent the range of advanced technology over 70 years of jet-powered flight, from a 1948 crash of a “flying wing” to a 2009 crash of an advanced fighter plane, now part of the US Air Forces. The show is about technology, but more about the poetic implications of these “high impact” land use sites, arbitrary drop points from above, that happened, literally, by accident. And why some people find them interesting enough to devote much of their free time to seeking them out, an activity known broadly as “wreck-finding,” and more officially, now, as “aviation archeology.”
Since the “Right Stuff”- era, Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles, has been the principal place for testing experimental aircraft. As a result, the landscape around it is peppered with crash sites – more than 600 in the western Mojave Desert alone. While many of them occurred inside restricted military spaces, many more occurred on private and public land outside the reservations. Some crashes occurred next to homes, and state highways. Sometimes the pilot ejected safely, sometimes not. These are complicated and often tragic places. In all cases though, despite having been cleaned up by authorities immediately following the crash, fragments of the planes can still be found on site. They are monuments of disintegration, dissolving back into the ground.
The exhibit has been something we have been wanting to do for over a decade. It is based on the work of Peter W. Merlin, someone who I met in the mid 1990s, when I was working on an exhibition about the Nellis Range in Nevada, and a book about the Nevada Test Site. Though still quite young, Peter was already well on his way to becoming one of the nation’s experts on exotic aircraft development, and failure, and the history of the most secure aviation test site in the nation, popularly known as Area 51, located inside the Nellis Range. Even then he was one of the go-to guys for Discovery Channel producers to interview about what was “really” going on inside this notoriously secret place. The thing was, he knew about that place as well as anybody who wasn’t sworn to secrecy, so he could talk about it. And he found out by sleuthing through non-classified sources.
[caption id="attachment_2960" align="alignleft" width="300"] Peter Merlin shows Aurora Tang of CLUI some of the small plane fragments still on the ground from a crash of an experimental high-performance jet, the X-31, less than half a mile from a house and a public highway, near Boron, California in 1995. In this case the pilot safely ejected. CLUI photo, 2012[/caption]
Unlike most people who were drawn to that place though, it wasn’t the conspiratorial secrecy and the UFO theories that motivated him, it was a fascination with aircraft, and the missing chapters of aviation history that these secret test sites concealed. While access to the site and to official records was largely out of the question then, he found that visitation to crash sites outside the restricted areas was possible and provided material evidence of what landed there.
Over the past 25 years, he, often aided by his friend Tony Moore and others, has located and visited more than 100 crash sites of historic aircraft, flown out of Area 51, and Edwards Air Force Base. In nearly every case he was told the site was “lost” and that everything had been removed anyways, so there was no point in trying to find it. But he found them, using clues from interviews with pilots, FOIA requests, and research in archives. Mostly though by days of repeated searches in the field, wandering around, lining up historic photos with subtle geographic features, like hills the distance, or small desert washes, while looking at the ground for incongruous fragments.
There is an established subculture of wreck-finders, some of whom publish books on small presses, and blog about their discoveries on the web. Pat Macha, for example, has been leading excursions into the mountains and deserts of California to find wreckage, mostly of civilian and old military training aircraft, for decades. Pete is not only interested in trophy hunting, and the personal thrill of discovery, though that is no doubt a factor – his backyard in Palmdale has a shed full of carefully bagged and logged pieces of hundreds of planes, including U2s, Blackbirds, and Russian Mig’s – a fragmentary history of aviation indeed. The best pieces he finds though go to museums, such as the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum at Edwards, where his partner, Tony Moore, now works.
[caption id="attachment_2961" align="alignnone" width="1100"] Titanium fragments of an A-12 "Oxcart," found by members of the CLUI at a crash site near Wendover, Utah, in 2011. The Oxcart, one of the most advanced aircraft ever made, was a flying camera, built by the CIA to replace the U2, and flown out of "Area 51" between 1962 and 1968. It was later developed into the more familiar SR-71 Blackbird. This crash occurred on public land, in 1963, when the plane's existence was still a closely-guarded secret.[/caption]
Pete, who met Tony while he was working as a baggage handler at Burbank Airport, also works on base now, as one of two archivists and historians at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, still the nation’s leading location for experimental aircraft testing. He is now a respected member of the aviation history community. He is a great example of how impassioned “amateurs” are often the experts, especially on subjects that lie beyond the well-worn paths, and the confines of academia.
For more about the CLUI exhibit Down to Earth: Experimental Aircraft Crash Sites of the Mojave, go to http://www.clui.org/section/down-earth-experimental-aircraft-crash-sites-mojave
For more information Peter W. Merlin’s work, see http://www.dreamlandresort.com/team/peter.html
And his books: X-Plane Crashes – Exploring Experimental, Rocket Plane and Spycraft Incidents, Accidents and Crash Sites (Specialty Press, 2008), Breaking the Mishap Chain: Human Factors Lessons Learned from Aerospace Accidents and Incidents in Research, Flight Test, and Development, (NASA, 2012), and Crash Course: Lessons Learned from Accidents Involving Remotely Piloted and Autonomous Aircraft (NASA, 2013).

Citizen Koch We knew about Citizen Koch Directors, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, from their Academy Award Nominated film Trouble the Water (2009) and from their work with Michael Moore on some of his groundbreaking films (Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11). This pair obviously has documentary cred, but when we heard they were making a new film about the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision and its alarming fallout on the American people, we pounced on the chance to support them.
Citizen Koch illustrates the twisted and powerful influence that the Koch brothers have had on voter suppression in the United States at large. The film takes an in depth look into the lives of individuals in Wisconsin uncovering truths and stories from people where these brothers’ deep and creepy pockets and the Supreme Court’s decision had the greatest impact.
While we haven’t yet seen the whole film, many noteworthy reviews have acknowledged the importance of this project and its effective contribution to the arduous task of overturning the Citizen United ruling. This compelling piece of authentic storytelling by those directly engaged with the dramatic erosion of democracy in the United States is beyond a wake up call, it is a call to action.
Though the film’s incredibly busy crew was still buzzing with the success of their premier at Sundance, we were lucky enough to catch up with one of the Director’s, Tia Lessin, this month. She shares with us about not only their revelatory experiences at Sundance, but also their pressing and personal motivations in making this film, and where she sees the movement going from here. We are so honored to share her experience with the Kindle community and bring your attention to Citizen Koch, a brilliant example of social and economic justice education. Get involved here.
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httpv://youtu.be/kF9F6T8B9Mk
Reflection on CITIZEN KOCH
by Director, Tia Lessin
Last month we premiered our film CITIZEN KOCH at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. What an adventure! We are so grateful to Sundance for giving us a chance to introduce this new documentary to the world, to the Kindle Project and other supporters for making the film possible, and to the audiences who attended the first screenings and so enthusiastically responded to the film.
One of the more memorable and satisfying experiences of Sundance are the Q and As after the screenings—an opportunity to engage in person with some of the best audiences in the world—and ours were especially lively. And you never know who will turn up.
A woman approached us after our second screening and told us that she had been an invited guest at one of billionaire Charles and David Koch’s biannual fundraising retreats--a secret convening of the country’s wealthiest conservatives, Tea Party-aligned politicians, and right wing pundits --plotting how to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars to influence the outcome of elections. I took a step back. But instead of taking issue with the film, this stylish well-dressed woman told me: “you have it right—it is indeed a state by state strategy they are undertaking.” I asked her if she would take me as her plus one to the next retreat, but she declined with a laugh. I hadn’t been joking.
In January 2011, the Koch’s private security goons kicked me out of the gathering in Palm Springs, California. But that didn’t shut us down, in fact that experience compelled us to make CITIZEN KOCH. While the beginning of the money trail that corrupts democracy hides behind well-guarded banquet halls in private resorts, its corrosive consequences are glaringly apparent in workplaces, at family tables and in statehouses across America. And that is where CITIZEN KOCH begins.
Shortly after being ejected from the Koch fundraiser, we got a call from Carl’s brother, who works as a public university professor in Wisconsin. He told us “you should be filming what’s about to go down here.” Newly-elected Gov. Scott Walker, bankrolled by corporate money including the Koch fortune, had proposed eliminating collective bargaining rights for public employees, and tens of thousands of Wisconsinites were storming their statehouse in protest. Carl and I grabbed our gear and set out for Madison.
We came to understand the political drama unfolding in Wisconsin to be part of a concerted and nationwide strategy by extremists to super-enfranchise the wealthiest people and corporations through allowing unlimited (and undisclosed) donations, and to undermine the already diminished power of working and poor Americans with the passage of voter ID laws and efforts to break unions to diminish their ability to spend politically. Wisconsin was at the cutting edge of this strategy: we repeatedly heard Republican operatives say that Gov. Walker’s Wisconsin was “a model for the country,” that his moves against organized labor would help pro-business Republicans gain control of elected offices throughout the country.
Following this story also gave us a chance to make sense of why so many working class Republicans support an agenda promoted by America’s wealthiest. We have long wondered what it would take to change that dynamic, and in Wisconsin, we found out.
As protesting crowds rattled Madison’s Capitol rotunda, we were struck by the widespread outrage Gov. Walker had provoked. It was coming not just from the usual activists, but from a groundswell of citizens who understood that Walker was betraying Wisconsin’s legacy of democratic values. We met state workers—staunch, life-long Republicans—who had concluded that Walker’s radical policies would undercut their families’ modest standard of living and dishonor their life-long commitment to public service.
Neither of us live in Wisconsin. Carl grew up in the Midwest, I grew up in Washington, DC. But as we watched and listened to a growing chorus of politicians and strategists like Tim Phillips from the Koch’s Americans for Prosperity cast aspersions on public employees, it felt personal. My parents were both federal civil servants — my father at the EPA regulating carcinogens, my mother at the justice department administering federal funding to state and local law enforcement agencies. Carl’s father was a public university librarian, and his mother taught in an elementary school. They all chose government service for the security it brought to our families, and also because on some level for them it fulfilled a sense of commitment to the common good. When did they become the enemy? When did WE become the enemy?
In our first feature length film, TROUBLE THE WATER, we documented the aftermath of the breaching of the levees in New Orleans. Making that film, we saw first-hand what an America with no government services looks like—not just in the days and weeks after the disaster, but in the years leading up to it.
Today, the dismantling of the public sector and the vital services it provides has become the cornerstone of a political ideology embraced by the Kochs and others on the extreme right. Looking back, post-Katrina New Orleans now seems a logical extension of their vision for America.
The most frequent question we encountered during our Q and A sessions was whether or not we thought outside spending in electoral politics was still an issue: after all, Barack Obama withstood a barrage of corporate money in November 2012. We believe that Obama’s victory was a false positive. Moving beyond 2012, we expect money to become an even greater influence as Koch Industries and other corporate interests continue to move aggressively to neutralize the Democrats’ ground game (ie take out organized labor) and pour money into state and local races where the laws that define how our Democracy functions are passed. The big spenders are doubling down for the next election, and beyond.
In December 2012, as we were finishing CITIZEN KOCH in preparation for Sundance, the Kochs made an announcement that they were postponing their next fundraising retreat: “We are working hard to understand the election results, and based on that analysis, to re-examine our vision and the strategies and capabilities required for success…it will be several months before the state data necessary to complete this analysis is available.”
As Dee Ives, a nurse at a veterans home in Wisconsin and a lifelong Republican, told us the morning after her Governor was re-elected after outspending his opponent 8-1: “Watch out America, they’re coming for you next.”

New Energy Economy Want to know how to erect a national monument? Ask the folks at New Energy Economy (NEE). As I write these words, there is quite likely a conversation happening somewhere in Washington about the Rio Grande del Norte and its consideration for National Monument status.
When I spoke with Mariel Nanasi, NEE’s Executive Director, about the evolution of this project, she explained a complex and powerful fusion of grassroots organizing, activism and art. At the point when the coalition of many organizations and individuals working to protect the Rio Grande had been so immense and enduring that many of the involved parties were close to a state of burn out, a seemingly unlikely suggestion was made. As these organizers were considering the various legislative strategies they may employ to implement the monument status, a funder approached Mariel and proposed they make a book about the people of New Mexico and their love of the land to help their cause.
I must admit, at this point in her story I had a quick moment of skepticism wondering how a book could have an impact on changing legislation, especially a book that was essentially a love letter from the people of the region to the land. I loved the idea, and I love the book, which can be viewed online here, but wondered about the kind of impact it could have.
As Mariel told me more, my skepticism was instantly washed away. Her accounts of being on location and the tales of the people she photographed showed me that this was no ordinary project, and gave me confidence in the power of this unique collection of human sentiment to move the hearts of the politicians who would come to see it, including President Obama himself.
Having a river and a region considered for National Monument status is indeed a serious task. In Mariel’s words, “I have never worked on a project that was more about love of place.” To learn more about how this love of place was transformed into this vast accomplishment, read Mariel’s testimony below. Join us and the NEE team in waiting with anticipation to hear the decision of our county’s legislators on the future status of this precious land.
New Energy Economy has been a part of the Kindle community since 2010. Their work spans from placing solar panels on local business to advocating at the legislative level for clean energy standards in New Mexico to empowering Native communities to make clean air decisions. Their website is filled with information and resources, be sure to check it out.
Protecting the Rio Grande del Norte
by Mariel Nanasi
I was approached by a friend who had been working in coalition for years to bring about the permanent protection of the Rio Grande del Norte. He was worn-out and asked me if we could work together and strategize anew.
Biologically diverse and spectacular, the Rio Grande del Norte is a swath of northern New Mexico wilderness spanning 236,000 acres. It is a rich wildlife habitat that offers a paradise for backcountry hiking and fishing, traditional land uses like hunting and gathering, an outstanding place for observing nature in all of its splendor, and a refuge offering solitude and spiritual rejuvenation. Multiple attempts to advance legislation over the past 10 years in the House of Representatives and Senate to conserve this vital area had died.
How could we spice up the organizing efforts? How could we reach the people in power to act quickly and effectively? We figured out that the key to shaking the political stagnation out of its legislative gridlock was to touch the hearts of our sympathetic Congressional delegation and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and have them ask President Obama to invoke his powers under the Antiquities Act to declare the Rio Grande del Norte a National Monument.
Our first idea was to create a photography book that depicted the way a diverse people interact with and love the Rio Grande del Norte. The breadth and depth of bi-partisan support for preservation of the Rio Grande del Norte transcends age, ethnicity and profession. I wanted to communicate how despite our individual differences that our lifestyle, traditions, livelihood and culture are all tied to this land.
We took photographs of Hispanics, Native Americans, and Anglos. We showcased anglers in the water, a falconer, hikers, veterans, artists, a health insurance agent, a stock broker, farmers, business owners, students, a brewer, ranchers, tourists, writers, a bank teller, hunters, and more. We pictured them in the place they love doing what they love. It was one of the most fun projects I have ever been engaged in because people were unabashed advocates for the place they treasure.
A collage was made of the people photographed and we bought advertising on the outside of buses that featured the collage with a bold and simple message: “Join Us and Protect The Rio Grande del Norte.” We sent a delegation of three people featured in the book to Washington to hand delivery the book to our Senators and Congressmen. We got unanimous Resolutions passed by the City of Santa Fe and the County of Taos in support of permanent protection, and those governing bodies sent their Resolutions to the Congressional delegation. We were strategic in choosing key stakeholders to meet with and show up at events (even tennis tournaments and parties) and intercept the Congresspersons and let them know how much we wanted the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument.
You can see for yourselves if we were successful in getting our message across. In a joint letter to President Obama, Congressmen Heinrich and Lujan referred to the book by saying: “The Rio Grande del Norte: One Hundred New Mexican Speak for a Legacy showcases the faces and voices of 100 New Mexicans who work, play, cherish and live near the Rio Grande del Norte; and they share, in their own words, why these public lands must be protected.” Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar’s response to the Congressmen, on behalf of President Obama, called the book “an excellent representation of the magnificence of this special place.” The book is prominently displayed in Senators Bingaman (ret.) and Udall’s offices and when Ken Salazar autographed my copy he wrote: “Thanks for the dream.”
People noticed, the coalition was reinvigorated, and the whole campaign was much better off. We interacted meaningfully with those we photographed and in turn they became advocates. We took creative and artistic risks, and leveraged the umph that we generated.
The Rio Grande del Norte is a national treasure and we expect it will be declared a National Monument under the Antiquities Act by President Barack Obama any day now. On the hundredth year anniversary of the State of New Mexico, a National Monument designation is a fitting way to honor our people, our state.
You can see The Rio Grande del Norte: One Hundred New Mexican Speak for a Legacy at: http://newenergyeconomy.org/protecting-the-rio-grande-del-norte/

Dirty Wars I can think of no better way to start this year off than to share with you news of Dirty Wars, a film we have been supporting since 2011. We are thrilled to finally be sharing our partnership in this monumental documentary with you. With its premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition coming up at Sundance this month, it is time for the Kindle community to know about Dirty Wars and the incredible people that made this film.
From the moment we first heard about this project, we were absolutely sure it was a perfect fit for Kindle. Long time fans of Jeremy Scahill and Big Noise Films, we were certain of their collaborative capacity as investigative journalists and filmmakers to uncover the most pressing and alarming details behind America’s covert wars with expert quality and utmost integrity.
Kindle has always been a believer in the transformative power of documentary. Whether a strong doc transforms personal belief or policy, or transforms what we thought we knew about any given issue, the documentary medium is one we’re perpetually interested in supporting. Dirty Wars was especially compelling to us not only because of its stellar producers, director and characters, but also because its subject matter will likely inform one of the most important conversations about war, justice, human rights and international relations this year.
Below, the film’s Director, Richard Rowley, talks about the project on the Sundance site. His last words in this short interview describe the project’s purpose: Dirty Wars “will show people a war that is being fought in their name that they know next to nothing about.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5-XIt45EVs
I was fortunate enough to see some of the footage of Dirty Wars some months ago. I sat at my desk too shocked to cry, and too disturbed to move. I fancy myself an informed person, but what I was seeing was not only atrocious but I also had next to no previous notion of it. Through Jeremy’s writing in The Nation, I was beginning to learn about some of the regions covered in the film and America’s duplicitous involvement there. However, the footage from Dirty Wars exposed me to a wealth of information that I had not been aware of and led me to deeply question what I thought I knew about American’s involvement abroad. Not only was the footage beautifully shot and narrated, but the distressing stories will surely create a groundbreaking film with an absolutely essential message.
Bringing its’ viewers new information, intelligence, and on the ground reporting, Dirty Wars is nothing short of a documentary feat. Below, the film’s producers, Brenda Coughlin and Anthony Arnove, give us a deeper understanding of what goes into making a film like this, the challenges they faced, and the vital importance of funding documentary productions.
•••
On Dirty Wars
by Brenda Coughlin and Anthony Arnove
When we heard the news that the film Dirty Wars had been accepted to the US documentary competition for the Sundance Film festival, which is taking place later this month in Park City, UT, one of the first people we wanted to share the good news with was Kindle Project.
Kindle Project had been with us from the earliest stages of the project and had given us support at a time when we were just setting out on the process of making a film that posed a series of new challenges for us. Among them: how do we secure kidnap, ransom, and dismemberment insurance for our filmmaking team.
In Dirty Wars, Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America’s expanding covert wars. The journey took Scahill and our director and cinematographer Richard Rowley to Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Kenya. While they are both experienced unembedded journalists, and have reported from war zones for years, the security risks were significant. We also had to protect footage -- and protect sources, including an anonymous insider from with the secretive world of U.S. Special Forces who appears with his identity disguised in the film.
[caption id="attachment_2930" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dirty Wars Still: Jeremy Scahill in Afghanistan[/caption]
In the end, we were able to get insurance through a bank in England, but not after other insurance companies had turned us down.
Kindle Project also made it possible for us to finance our film entirely independently. As producers of the film, one of our main goals was to give Scahill and Rowley complete editorial independence, allowing them to tell the story how they wanted to tell it, without compromise. We also wanted to ensure that whenever we were in a position to bring the film out in the world -- as we will be doing in 2013 -- we can make decisions based on how we can reach the widest audience and have the greatest educational impact, not based on financial considerations.
Filmmaker Richard Rowley of Big Noise Films (Fourth World War, Zapatista) first met investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill when they were working in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Both had worked for independent broadcast outlets and international networks reporting on overlooked stories in the wars there and in other countries. After the breakout success of Scahill’s book Blackwater, which became a New York Times and an international bestseller and thrust Scahill into the media spotlight, Rowley and Scahill collaborated on a short film, Blackwater’s Youngest Victim, about the deadly Nisour square Shooting in Baghdad in September 2007, in which mercenaries of the Blackwater company killed seventeen civilians, including nine-year-old Ali Mohammed Hafedh Kinani.
Around the time of the film’s release, in 2010, Scahill was in the planning stages of a new book-length project, exploring the expansion of covert wars and the rise of the secretive extremely powerful Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Scahill had been approached by filmmakers about making a feature film or documentary based on Blackwater after the release of the book in 2007, but this time, Scahill didn’t want to wait until the end of the book writing process to explore the filmmaking possibilities. He turned to Rowley to working alongside him from the outset in the course of his investigation.
Many fine documentaries have been filmed as a companion or interpretation of a work of nonfiction writing. But Scahill and Rowley set out with a different goal: not to make a documentary based on the forthcoming book Dirty Wars, which will be published in April 2013, but to make a film that stood entirely in its own right, using all of the power of the documentary form. This is not a film of a book. Nor is the book based on a film. They are different lenses into a compelling, complex story that cannot be fully explored in either genre alone.
As Rowley notes, “The film that will premiere at Sundance looks and feels nothing like the film we set out to shoot.” But in the end -- thanks to the help of Kindle Project and a few other vital allies -- all of us who worked on Dirty Wars feel we have found a way to tell the story we wanted to tell.
filmguide.sundance.org/film/13073/dirty_wars
dirtywars.org/

Marjane Satrapi Recently, I was talking with a friend about Kindle’s 2012 Makers Muse Recipients. This friend happens to be Iranian, and when we came to Marjane Satrapi’s name, she got a little gleeful. Her husband had never heard of Satrapi, and my friend proceeded to explain why she loved Satrapi’s work so much, adding in, “And it’s not just because she’s Iranian that she’s so great, she’s an incredible artist and writer!” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Sometimes, in the art world, an artist gets extra recognition and accolades based on their place of origin. It is as if there is a need to fill a certain diversity quota in terms of what art we find meaning in. While Marjane is from Iran, and we do admit to being attracted to supporting women of color from often-misrepresented countries, in the case of Marjane Satrapi we were drawn to her based on a true love of her work. It is her whole person, her writings, her films, and her style that made us choose her as a Makers Muse Recipient.
Marjane gives her audiences permission to talk about identity, sex, government, sense of place, and love. Her works are as much enchanting as they are brazen. Somehow, she makes magic cool and romance mysterious again. Michael Cavna captured her essence perfectly in a forthright interview in The Washington Post, “Everything Marjane Satrapi touches, no matter how dark, feels laced with joy”. Dark yet vulnerable, joyful yet filled with sorrow; this is her work. Like invented memories of mystics poets with high heels and cigarettes, Marjane is trailblazing a place for women in a variety of genres.
All of us on the Kindle team read Persepolis when it came out just over ten years ago. It was a kind of revelation and even a revolution that so many of us could relate to her stories of growing up during and after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Better yet, it was comic novel written by a woman about womanhood! We’d never seen anything like it before and have been fervent fans of work ever since. From Persepolis II to Embroideries, we read her works voraciously, and then sat in waiting as her films began their releases.
[embed]http://vimeo.com/392358[/embed]
Her sense of aesthetic playfulness combined with her very contemporary and female voice is one of the contradicting combinations we adore about her. Her work is not only deeply revered (Persepolis was nominated for an Oscar in 2008), but widely admired and has enjoyed international success. In the clip below, Marjane speaks to the universality of her work when discussing her most recent film, Chicken With Plums.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM4gGHS4d5I
Marjane’s ability to build bridges without kitsch or tricks and to create work without apology or assumption is what has made her a truly inspiring Makers Muse Recipient. Thank you, Marjane, for your wonderful contributions. We can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with next!
Keep up to date with Marjane's work via her Facebook page.

Dynasty Handbag
You may remember meeting Jibz Cameron (a.k.a Dynasty Handbag) from our candid Brooklyn interview with her this past spring. She’s as disarming and vulnerable as she is quirky and high-quality bizarre. This time around, we get an exclusive Dynasty Handbag experience.
On stage, Jibz’s alter ego is a conduit for the musings of the primal mind and body. Wild, uncensored, and unabashed, she is not definable or contained, but is a character that results in the allowance of one’s deepest and strangest impulses. The creation that is Dynasty Handbag is a unique expression of character, raw human behavior, and humor.
As part of our 2012 Makers Muse crew, Dynasty Handbag brings something completely different to the table. She is a performing artist with the panache and sometimes-blatant sub-text of a cutting edge feminist drizzled with the gall and glitter of an 80’s workout queen. Thanks to remarkable contortion abilities, her characterization as Dynasty handbag includes dramatic altering of her, face making her physicality as much a part of her performances as her strangely wonderful videos and sound installations.
Below, we get to see a provocative daily account of Dynasty Handbag’s internal world: a week’s log of her to-do lists, a special creation from a performer who begs us to let out our inner weird to see our inner awesome.
Thanks DH!
•••
Dear Fans,
In order to create more accountability for my actions, I decided to share with you my to do lists for the week. I have been reading that when you share your tasks with others it makes it easier to stay on top of things. I am hoping I can get some support with these things, since it is so hard to manage my time being an independent contractor and all. I am sure you understand, as most of you are artists, freelance caterers, "consultants" etc...
Thanks for listening,
Love Dynasty Handbag
Dec 1, 2012
1. wash leotards (just crotches)
2. take Steve in for a mane wash/brush and fang scrub
3. change the patriarchal structure of the art world to include more shared authorship works and an equal amount of female artists in all national museums and galleries
4. fresh direct order
Dec 2, 2012
1. rewash leotards crotches with REAL detergent. "all natural" clearly means "all natural shit still left in your fucking clothes after you wash them with this useless crap"
2. drain jello from jacuzzi, replace with wheatgrass (health kick regiment, day 1)
3. make psychic contact with dead great great grandma to inquire about history of family members with mental health issues, alcoholism and murdering to somehow feel justified in my behavior and more at ease with myself/less resposible for actions.
Dec 3, 2012
1. put on groovy record, point left foot, swing leg up to mid-thigh area, spin about clockwise, lift elbows by ears, wiggle eyes side to side, shake fingers up to the heavens, grab a snake, shake snake
at the heavens, clap and stop and punch self in face, bleed on carpet, get on hands and knees, rub face into bloody carpet, look for loose change in carpet, find a quarter and 2 pennies and a old rubber band, a staple and some sun flower seed shells.
2. go to candy store with recently found 27 cents.
3. ask candy store man what I can get for 27 cents.
4. cry and cry as candy store man tells me "nothin kid! get the hell outta here what do you think this is, 1937! its 1994 and you can't even get 1/2 a mini bottle of Zima, Zomething different, go cry to your mommy you dirty bum!
5. cry to mommy
6. don't get needs emotionally met by mommy
7. go to daddy
8. daddy is busy
9. act out with local ruffians to get attention
10. keep repeating steps 5 - 10. forever.
Dec 4, 2012
1. sleep in, long day yesterday!
2. mani/pedi
3. fucky/sucky
Dec 5, 2012
1. singular sensation
2. every little step she takes
1. thrilling combination
2. everything move that she makes
1. smile and suddenly
2. nobody else will do
1. you know you'll never be lonely with YOU KNOW WHO
2. 1 moment in her presence and you can forget the rest
1. for the girl whos 2'd best
2. to none
Dec 6, 2012
1. stay in fantasy as much as possible to as to not have to face the reality of todays pain.
Dec 7, 2012
1. look up the following:
- difference between congress and senate
- why are soy products "bad" for you
- why doesn't the US use the metric system, still, who benefits? besides ruler manufacturers.
- what are those painful white bumps I sometimes get on my tongue
2. keep dying, every day, every moment, to awaken and live again, every day, every moment.
3. wash car, MYSELF, do NOT pay for it! Its a waste of money and water. Don't be lazy about this.

Announcement of Autumn 2012 Grantees! As the year draws to a close and 2012 may or may not signal the end of the world, we thought it only fitting that we wrap up this calendar year with a bang. Kindle Project Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation is pleased to introduce you to our Autumn grantees, whom we are so excited to welcome into ourKindle nook. These organizations and projects make up a strong network of dynamic risk-takers, pioneers, edge-walkers and community builders in some incredible fields that need our focused attention.
With nine new and six returning grantees on our docket this winter, we have an exciting year ahead. We hope you will be as thrilled as we have been to learn more about their work, the people within these groups, and the movements that they are helping to grow and shift. From and with them, and with you, we’ll be learning about topics ranging from money in the US electorate to the creative use of gastronomy in the food justice movement, and so much in between! The creative and committed endeavors represented by our November 2012 grantees is nothing short of inspiring, a loud and clear call to action on so many fronts.
With voices strong, minds open, and brains collaborating, we are certain you’ll want to join us in 2013 as we get to know these folks and their work. Keep in touch with them here on our blog, check out their blogs and websites, and remember to stay informed with all kinds of Kindle news on our Facebook page. You can also visit the Nexus page on our website to see this list along with our Spring grantees. What a great year!

Announcement of Kindle Project Photography Awards We are honored to announce the recipients of our first
Kindle Project Photography Awards
Agnes Thor
Marie-José Jongerius
Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs
This award has come out of a partnership between Kindle Project and Capricious Magazine, wherein we collaborated in an international call for submissions for their 13th issue focused on the theme of water.
As our global landscape continues to oscillate unpredictably with climate change and powerful emergent social movements, water resource is at the forefront of our minds. From water scarcity to excess, the contentious access between the haves and have-nots, from floods to drought, water is the issue of our time. Our longtime support of the arts and of social and environmental justice movements, combined with Capricious’ impeccable reputation and eye for emerging photographers made our collaboration with Capricious a natural one.
Chosen from hundreds of submissions, we used our combined and varied expertise to carefully consider many talented photographers. Our committee of four (Sophie Morner, Sadaf Cameron, Karen Codd, and Arianne Shaffer) met in Brooklyn, NY at the Capricious office to deliberate over images from around the world. We considered which photographers represented Kindle Project’s and Capricious’ fused missions. We chose those who had promising bodies of work that contributed to the conversation on water, eliciting powerful intellectual and emotional responses.
Each photographer we chose spoke to the high aesthetic standard of Capricious and to one of the central missions of Kindle Project: to bring about awareness and change through art. These unique and careful representations exhibited artistic skill and the breadth by which photographers are tackling perspectives of water in its many forms.
Playful and political, these three awardees have submitted exemplary works that are well deserving of recognition and congratulation.
CAPRICIOUS No. 13 – WATER coming this December to bookshops internationally, and online. And made first available through Art Basel and NADA in Miami, FL.
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Agnes Thor
www.agneskarin.se
Agnes Thor, born in 1986, works as a photographer in New York City. Originally from Sweden and with a BA in Photography from School of Photography in Gothenburg she often works with photographic docufiction. By combining motifs from different places and times and taking landscapes and people out of its context, she creates new visual stories based on reality but with a fictional content. Her work is greatly influenced by nature and it either functions as a background and subject. Another strong influence and subject in her work is the area and population surrounding her childhood home in the countryside of Sweden.
Her works have been exhibited worldwide, most recently at the Terra Cognita Festival in The Netherlands and in a solo show at Kumla Konsthall in Sweden. In 2010 her first book Aurora Borealis was published by Mörel Books. She is currently working on a larger project revolving around life and death in combination with smaller projects during her travels.
Marie-José Jongerius
www.edgesoftheexperiment.org
In my landscape pictures I look for bounderies, limits and edges between nature and the manmade world. Where are the interfaces between the organic and the artificial world, and do they fail or succeed. I want to tell stories about mankind not by making pictures of them, but by making pictures of the traces they leave behind in the land.
The photographic essay, “Edges of the Experiment,” explores the liminal relationship between natural and man-made environments. Taken at various locations across the American Southwest over several years, these images attempt to locate interfaces between organic and artificial worlds as tangible borders that question sustainability on both sides of the line.
Marie-José Jongerius observes geography with an attentive eye for those remarkable details that make up our daily lives, and asks the viewer to consider where we live and how we relate to our respective environments.
Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs
www.tonk.ch
Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs (both *1979) studied Photography at the University of the Arts in Zurich. They started collaborating in 2003 and have been working together since.
Their practice combines Photography with sculptural, performative and installational parts. Since 2005 they have been exhibiting their work internationally, Solo Shows include PS1 MoMA (2006), Swiss Institute NYC (2008), Kunsthaus Aargau (2009), EX3 Firenze (2010), Kunsthalle Mainz (2011) and MaMM Moscow (2012).
Their first Artist Book, “The Great Unreal”, published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2009, won numerous prizes and is now in its 2nd Edition.
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The Kindle Project Photography Awards are made possible through the Kindle Project LLC.

Carlos Motta Gender has been on our minds a lot lately. A record breaking number of women were voted into Congress in this year’s election (including the first openly gay Congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin and the first openly bisexual member of Congress, Kyrsten Sinema), the Canadian federal bill C-279 is on the table to incorporate gender identity as a part of Canada’s Human Right’s Act, and the 14th International Transgender Day of Remembrance just took place on November 20th. Given this seemingly historical climate, featuring Carlos Motta (Makers Muse Recipient) and his work is not only timely, but essential.
As conversations about gender identity politics, rights and advocacy are stronger and more commonplace than ever, the background is now in place for a more widespread and inclusive dialogue around these topics. We have come to a place where hetero-normative gender constructs have a face and a voice in the media, in politics, and in dominant culture. However, these individuals and communities are still vastly marginalized. There are still many people who may be questioning these subjects, or holding prejudices or false perceptions around them, yet have no access to the dialogue. The role of the arts in facilitating these conversations is becoming of utmost importance.
Enter Carlos Motta. As a multimedia artist, his work lays at the intersections of contemporary art, gender, human rights and critical thought. Carlos creates multimedia and interactive opportunities, using video, installation, interviews and lectures, facilitating the public to engage with and explore these subjects at personal and political levels. By participating in his works, diverse audiences can gain a deeper and broader understanding of the kinds of issues that gender and sexual identity politics are facing in our societies. He is able to bend minds and hearts to realize the full complexity of these issues, through experience.
Carlos’ most recent installation at the New Museum in New York, We Who Feel Differently, allowed him to document and present varying perspectives on how several ranges of minority groups are working to transform and challenge oppressive systems. One of the brightest minds and talents on this subject, his thought-provoking and beautiful series of works challenge the layers of assumptions, discomforts, and misinformation surrounding a whole swath of gender and identity questions. Through careful execution, he assures accessibility and creates a safe space for the interactive participant to hear and see other people’s real stories of gender, and to express their own as well.
In his innovative multimedia and inter-genre explorations of his subjects, Carlos leaves no stone unturned. Browsing the interviews from the We Who Feel Differently project gives us insight into the earnestness of his work. It is both an archival experiment of people’s unique stories and a segue into the work Carlos is creating next.
Below, Carlos shared with us an update of his recent work and an explanation into the new projects on the horizon. We are proud to support Carlos and artists like him, acknowledging their crucial role in leading the way for true change in North America’s concept of gender identity.
•••
An Upate from Carlos Motta
“We Who Feel Differently: A Manifesto” proposes a set of concrete demands. Demands, however, which are almost impossible to accomplish since they specifically advocate for an absolute transformation of the system as we know it, the abolition of discriminatory administrative and bureaucratic traps that determine legislative action and the religious morality that fuels the harmful prejudices that influence cultural imagination. All these systems were created by a heteronormative, masculinist and racist visions of the world and with the idea of what constitutes a “good life.”
During the past 3 years I worked on “We Who Feel Differently,” a project that attempts to document the work that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer and Questioning activists, academics, artists, and lawyers, amongst many others, have been developing in order to transform that oppressive system. The project puts forth the idea of (sexual and gender) difference as a positive category to publicly assert a political agenda based on models of intersectional solidarity with other “minority” groups.
[gallery columns="2" ids="2683,2693,2680,2681,2679,2682,2684,2690,2691,2692"]
I was interested in developing a multimedia context where the articulation of this agenda could be a platform to document and further develop a history of radical politics regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. As such the web portal, wewhofeeldifferently.info, functions as an archive-in-construction; social events held in a variety of cultural institutions function as discursive spaces to disseminate and produce knowledge; the video installation functions as a physical manifestation of the material; and the book carefully proposes five thematic threads, which include discussion around equality, democracy, citizenship, gender identity, HIV/Aids activism, art and other cultural and social issues (wewhofeeldifferently.info/themes.php).
This past summer I had the wonderful opportunity to stage all these elements at the New Museum in New York (http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/carlos-motta-we-who-feel-differently) where an enthusiastic community formed around the project and came back again and again for the different elements of the program. Having the chance to speak from “the center,” from such a mainstream institution, about “the margins” was a strong political gesture and enabled international and intergenerational visitors to face issues they may or may not be used to.
Inspired by one of “We Who Feel Differently’s” central themes, the politics of gender identity, I started producing a new project titled “Gender Talents,” an experimental documentary and video installation about how groups of transgender, intersex, gender-benders and neutral-gender advocates are constructing alternative gender identities in a transphobic world defined by rigid perceptions of gender as categorically binary: man/woman. “Gender Talents” intends to document different approaches towards building politics of gender self-determination in different geographic and cultural contexts by looking at the specific work of organizations and activists working to advance the rights of gender non conforming (Trans, Intersex, Hijra) communities in Argentina, Australia, Colombia, India, South Africa and the United States.
I am interested in exposing the very specific and nuanced set of circumstances faced by these populations by closely documenting key aspects of their work: How do you build a discourse of self-empowerment? How do you construct a legal framework within the specific cultural and religious place that some Trans identities play in society? How does class reflect itself in these matters? What are the key social and political challenges faced by a social-work organization? How can Trans, Intersex and and Hijra populations continue to work towards building a better life?
“Gender Talents” is very much in progress, with an estimated premiere date of late 2014, but I will be presenting a series of in-production “moments,” projects and programs such as the upcoming “Special Address: A Symposium” and “Euphoric Deviations” at Tate Modern’s The Tanks in London on February 2, 2013. Commissioned by Electra and Tate Modern this is a two- part event, which through concrete, theoretical and abstract routes seeks to radically depart from the binary logic of sexual and gender representation.
The first chapter, Special Address: A Symposium, convenes an international group of thinkers, activists, and artists in a performative symposium using the proposition and manifesto as structuring devices and starting points for discussion. These ‘special addresses’ will explore models and strategies to transform the ways in which society perversely defines and regulates bodies and asks what is at stake when collapsing, inverting or abandoning the gender binary. A fantastic group of participants has accepted my invitation: Arakis Xabier Arakistain, J. Jack Halberstam, Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad, Beatriz Preciado, Dean Spade, Terre Thaemlitz, Wu Tsang and Del LaGrace Volcano.
The second part is Euphoric Deviations, a performance conceived in collaboration with choreographer Matthias Sperling. The work attends to movement as a means of exploring the connections between collective politics and a sense of the individual. Based on a choreographic score of performative tasks that engage thirteen performers in individual decision-making processes, Euphoric Deviations abstractly asks how self-determination is both a deeply personal project and continuously negotiated in relation to others.
http://carlosmotta.com/

Miranda July Recently, on Instagram, I saw that Miranda July had become a verb when someone photographed a pair of her own red shoes that she had written on. The left shoe read, ‘Me’, the right, ‘You’ and her toes were pointing to one another. The caption read: “I’ve Miranda Julyed my flats.” You know you have an avant-guard influence when you’ve become a verb on Instagram.
As the author, filmmaker, and performance artist of many cult favorites, Miranda July is a name you’ve likely heard before. From her viral book launch website, http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/, to her award winning film, Me and You and Everyone we Know, Miranda’s works has wowed audiences in private and public ways. Her projects take you in slowly, begging self-reflection and inquisitiveness, and many of her performances involve audience participation and on-the-spot creation.
Even though she is young, (still under 40), I don’t think it’s too soon to call her a prolific artist. She continues to create while her new baby grows and maintains an accessible yet mysterious air about her. As a Makers Muse recipient, she is precisely the kind of quirky and contemporary intellectual that captures Kindle’s attention. Her written works, some published by renowned publishing house McSweeny’s, are evidence of that. Her audience seems to be made up of all kinds of people, around the world who share something in common: the desire to take a moment to reflect.
When we ask our recipients to share something with us for the blog, one of the things we offer them as an idea is a day-in-the-life portrayal. Miranda took this suggestion and made it her own by sharing with us excerpts from her personal Photo Booth diary. Here you’ll get to know her a little better: how she works, what she can’t work, and what moments in her day consist of. True to her artistic persona, Miranda’s Photo Booth essay gives us the feeling of closeness that we’ve come to know from her creations.
Stay in touch with Miranda's work via her website and her Facebook page. Her next performance will be in Seattle on December 5th.
Photo Booth Diary by Miranda July
I use the "Photo Booth" function on my Mac almost daily, usually to communicate something to someone. Sometimes I use it instead of scanner because I don't really know how to use a scanner and also I don't have one. Over time these accumulated pictures become a very mundane sort of diary. Here are a few recent ones.
--Miranda July
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Josh MacPhee Josh MacPhee is an understated artist with a loud series of movement building messages. Through his prints he conveys justice themes focusing on labor, nuclear energy, revolt, and democracy, to name a few. Through his refined use of traditional printmaking and his contemporary eye for design, Josh is creating media that educates and asks the audience to interact with critical subjects.
This print of Josh’s sums up the spirit of his work for me. Entitled, The City is Ours, his caption reads, “It’s really us little guys that make the city work. Let’s start acting on it!” His messaging is clear: It’s about collaboration, community, collective effort and the coming together of motivated individuals to make things better. He is a kind of artistic savant that bridges worlds of art, activism, craft and design.
Aside from Josh’s impressive print collection, he is one of the founders of Justseeds, a design and printmaking cooperative that includes artists based out of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Their body of work is an exhibit in itself, making known that even as we steep deeper into the digital era, traditional printmaking, hands-on care and craft are still of timely use in today’s context. This work is a simultaneous act of preservation and exercise of history.
As a member of Occuprint, (which he describes in detail below), he is a part of a global movement of creative message makers. Designers and artists were key catalysts in bringing a voice to the Occupy movement and Josh was, and still is, on the forefront of that important effort.
From Josh’s writing below you’ll get a deep sense of who is, what drives him, and how he is accomplishing his artistic goals with humility, intuition and leadership.
http://interferencearchive.org
http://www.justseeds.org/artists/josh_macphee/
http://www.justseeds.org/new/judging_books_by_their_covers/
httt://s1gnal.org
http://antumbradesign.org/
http://occuprint.org/
An Update by Josh MacPhee
For the past nine months my primary project has been building the Interference Archive here in Brooklyn, NY. Like all my projects, it is a collaboration, with my two primary partners Kevin Caplicki and Molly Fair, as well as with dozens of other activists, archivists, artists, designers, researchers, and students who have been involved in different aspects of the project. Interference Archive explores the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in public exhibitions, a study center, talks, screenings, publications, workshops, and an on-line presence. The archive consists of many kinds of objects that are created as part of social movements: posters, flyers, publications, photographs, moving images, audio recordings, and other printed matter. Through our programming, we use this cultural ephemera to animate histories of people mobilizing for social transformation.
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Right now we are knee deep in posters and ephemera from fifty years of anti-nuclear movements around the world. On October 4th our next exhibition opened, "RadioActivity! Anti-Nuclear Movements from Three Mile Island to Fukushima," in which we showed the connections between the movements of the past to the contemporary mass movement in Japan struggling against the re-opening of nuclear power plants post-Fukushima. By connecting with activists and organizers in Japan, we hope to play a small role in jump-starting a movement here in North America in order to ask serious and difficult questions about the safety and future of nuclear power locally and around the world.
The archive was initially envisioned with my partner Dara Greenwald, who passed away in January after fighting cancer for a year and a half. My work on Interference is both an attempt to continue the work we began together, and to keep myself focused while I try to heal and learn from losing her.
In a similar curatorial and collecting vein to the archive, I am a co-editor (with Alec Dunn) of a journal called Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics. We just recently released our second issue, and are hard at work on issues 3 & 4. In early September we did a mini-speaking tour of Boston, Providence, and Brooklyn, and in late September another one of Northern Virginia, Washington DC, and Baltimore.
When I'm not helping to run the archive or working on Signal, I've been designing prints, posters, and books, as well as trying to develop and improve my writing. I have created a number of new screen prints in the past 6 months, which can be seen on my Justseeds page. Justseeds, an artist cooperative I am a part of, recently held our annual retreat here in Brooklyn at the Interference Archive. We are 25 socially-engaged artists and printmakers who have been building a cooperative platform to both sell our work and support each other as artists, activists, and people.
I've also designed over twenty book covers so far this year, some for important books by some great authors, including Silvia Federici, David Harvey, Vijay Prashad, and CLR James. With Morgan Buck, I am in the early stages of turning this work into a design cooperative, Antumbra Design. Book cover design has become a passion over the last couple years, and beyond designing, I've been collecting and writing about covers from all over the world. Every week I post a new blog entry on Justseeds as part of my ongoing series "Judging Books by Their Covers." I'm currently working on a longer piece for print about the dozens of book covers of George Orwell's classic work of Spanish Civil War reportage, Homage to Catalonia. In other writing news, I have a longer format critique of Kickstarter being published in the Fall 2012 issue of The Baffler.
I was very active in the cultural work being done as part of Occupy! in late 2011 and early 2012. The group I was a part of, Occuprint, engaged in the largest propaganda campaign I've ever been involved in, printed 60,000 posters, 75,000 stickers, and 30,0000 broadsheets in support of the movement. Now that the energy of Occupy is much more diffuse, we are focusing in on—and experimenting with—becoming a graphic think tank for various threads of activism and organizing happening in New York City and around the country. We just held a design critique/charette with activists at the Free University held at Madison Square Park. It was a great sprawling conversation and brainstorm session, where visual ideas were shouted out, discussed, and sketched onto giant pads of paper. Occuprint will begin holding sessions like this on a monthly basis in October.
On a more personal note, I decided in July I really needed to be healthier and get myself back into shape. This has largely consisted of riding my bike about 10 miles every morning around the wonderful Prospect Park, and riding out to the ocean at Brighton Beach to swim a couple times a week. It's been fabulous. I love the ocean, it is so vast and intense it always puts me in my place!

Nova Ruth When we ask our Makers Muse Recipients to contribute to our blog, we never know what we’re going to get; it’s always an exciting moment to have that first read, that unusual introduction into what each artist is compelled to share with our Kindle community. In the case of Nova Ruth, we get a distinct insight into the roots of her name and how her name has helped to form her into the incredible artist she is today.
Nova, like many of this year’s recipients, is a true collaborator. She has been working intensively with Filastine, (whom Kindle also supported in 2009) and their combined efforts have resulted in brilliant new music. In addition to being an outstanding vocalist, Nova is also a Hip Hop artist, a community builder, and an activist and advocate in her home country of Indonesia. She has recently started a community coffee shop called Legipait in Malang. It’s the first of its kind in the region and acts as a community hub for local artists.
Nova is a multifaceted woman. As artist, activist, and entrepreneur, she is helping to put the roots, rhythms, and culture of Indonesia on the map. Below, we get a rare glimpse into her personal history.
Keep watching out for Nova Ruth. Who knows what project she’ll engage with next.
Nova explains the video posted below:
This video is one of global messages about the collapsing colony. Scenes:
• 1.5 hours from my hometown there's a mud disaster going on. Bakrie is often mentioned as the person who started the Lapindo project. But now he's trying to get elected as president in 2014.
• Big sections of the river in Muntilan are getting wider because of the Merapi volcanic eruption. The myth says, if humans make the river narrower (and build something on it), one day the river will take it back.
• Jakarta, so called megalopolis, the most crowded city in Indonesia, produces mountains of garbage in Bantar Gebang.
Many people think this video is about Indonesia, but what we wanted to actually say is: this is a very small example of what is happening globally.
On my name
by Nova Ruth
Many people asked is Nova my real name? I would love to tell you a little story about it.
I was born of two of the strongest people on earth.
My mother, Fatma Yoenia Ningsih, was the black sheep of her military family. She was a hiker and conquered the mountains around our city, Malang, including the highest mountain in Java. She said I sang beautifully and always pushed me to get on stage when I was a child, but I wouldn't be so brave then. She wanted to name me after her best friend, Nova, who lost her life because of dengue and was a great piano player.
My father, Toto Tewel, is still a guitar legend in Indonesia. We met each other at least once a year throughout my youth. I barely knew him when I decided to move in with him in 2007, just because I wanted to know his personality. He has a band called Elpamas. They were big in the 80's. Their lyrics talked about social problems back then and the over-power of the big people, the myths of our nation, even about the philosophy of tattoo. He joined a group named Kantata Taqwa/Samsara and SWAMI that was well known as a radical rock band that was influential in Indonesia's revolutionary process back on 1998. I was invited to see his performances many times. Under my consciousness, those lyrics appear in my brain all the time, and affect what I have done even recently. He wanted to name me Setyaningtyas, meaning “the faithful in the deepest heart”.
My father’s father was a priest. He built a church in the middle of a Chinese cemetery. His church was burned down by some fundamentalist tribe. Sometimes he was threatened and they put a sickle around his neck to fear him. Pastor Moestopo. He was the one who taught me to sing when I was five years old. He recorded my voice and told me which parts were wrong, or false notes. He wanted to name me Ruth, one of the characters in the Bible that has faithful characteristics, loyal to her missing husband in the war, even staying with her mother-in-law to take care of her.
One day the elders told me that a name is a wish. Those people who loved me had a good wish when they named me. In Java, most people don't carry a last name. This is the symbol of freedom. Today, I'm still free to decide how I carry these bravest of genes into my activism and music work. When I step on stage to work and meet with other brave people, faithful in what they are doing also free thinking and open minded, I feel that I am carrying my lineage forward. For example, in my recent collaboration with Filastine, the inspiration did not come far from where I grew up, but I wanted to deliver it as far as could.
And the next video is a cover song of Gendjer-gendjer, a traditional song that was banned by the Soeharto regime because it was used by Indonesian Communist Party to march. The lyrics are no crime. They tell a story about a plant that grew without anyone planting it, but people can also eat it. Soeharto covered the fact that 500,000 communists (real and suspected) were killed (by the army) for making a film about the killing of 7 army generals by communist (and screened it on national television every year until 1998). This is also a local story that is global. Every country has their own stigma and has covered it, never learning from their mistakes. No country is the best country. The truth is, no country is ever honest. Each individual should learn how to be honest and participate in the process of revealing the truth.

Fardin Waezi The Makers Muse Award is about recognition of uniqueness and process. Featuring our Makers Muse recipients on our blog affords us the opportunity to share the works and insights of seven brilliant artists, and highlight the details of what prompted us to support them in the first place. Over the coming months, you’ll meet each of these artists and get a glimpse at the rare nature of their work.
[caption id="attachment_2561" align="alignleft" width="450"] A view of the Band-e-Amir, for its perfect geographical location, the government of Afghanistan has recently named the Band-e-Amir as the Afghanistan’s first ever National Park, Bamyan, Afghanistan, 12 February 2010.[/caption]
Our first Makers Muse feature of the season, Fardin Waezi, might be described as a risk-taker, a brave photographer capturing crucial and intimate moments in his homeland of Afghanistan. For us, he is those things, but he’s also an artist, a journalist, and an exhibitor of truth. His photographs tell stories that few are telling in this tumultuous and fascinating country.
He is at once simple and complex. His biography, which he shared with us for our website, is less about his accolades and more about his life story and how it fuels his work.
Photojournalists are storytellers at the core. Here, Fardin shares a collection of eight of his photos with their accompanying vignettes, making evident the reasons why we chose him as a 2012 Makers Muse recipient. His writing and images depict the beauty he witnesses through the eyes of an Afghan, living in Afghanistan. Some photo essays from his blog are overtly more political, while others convey simple moments of daily life in a place that has been oversaturated with images of war and foreign interventions. Fardin has a master eye and we are happy to have him be our first Makers Muse feature of the season.
Afghanistan: life during wartime
by Fardin Waezi
Since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, the Afghan capital Kabul has seen many changes. The scars left by the radical Islamic regime are still visible and will linger for a long time to come, but in the space of just 11 years Afghans have started rebuilding their shattered lives.
War widows and orphaned children still beg in the streets, dangerously close to the teeming traffic, and no amount of reconstruction can bring back an old man’s dead sons or a nomad child’s sightless eyes.
But life is returning to this city of more of 3.5 million people.
Lively markets and traffic jams fill the avenues under the parched mountains.
Brick factories fires are burning around the clock to meet demands for new houses.
Children are returning to school and in 2004 women were allowed to vote for the very first time, in the country’s first democratic election.
Instead of the severed limbs of thieves, there are now photographers in front of the mosques.
Afghans are again savoring the joys of all that was banned by the black-turbaned religious police: taking pictures, eating out and weddings with dancing and singing.
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Stay in touch with Fardin and his work via his blog: http://thruafghaneyes.blogspot.com/
His blog also has images from a recent exhibition: Afghanistan: Beyond the Silk Road by Fardin Waezi. The exhibition ran from the 14th to 22nd September, 2012 at the Atrium Gallery, Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia.
All photos courtesy of Fardin Waezi.

Video Premiere and Interview with Calligraffiti Master, eL Seed eL Seed was a Makers Muse recipient in 2011 and since then he’s become a close friend of ours. Over the past two years we have watched him accomplish striking artistic, social, and political feats in his home country of Tunisia. Our connection with eL Seed has afforded us the privilege of hearing his first hand accounts of his journeys back to Tunisia, including the challenges, the joys, and the community that naturally builds around him as he involves locals across generations, genders, and walks of life in his work.
In the past year, eL Seed has been back to Tunisia twice. For his first trip he traveled to Kairouan where he was commissioned to paint a wall in the center of the city. His mural there sparked not only the beginnings of a renewed focus on art and culture in this ancient city, but also brought attention to the importance of street art in post-revolution Tunisia. This multi-layered outcome was in large part why we chose to fund this project in 2011.
We are fortunate enough to be the first to release the video that takes us through this project in Kairouan. Watch below to enter eL Seed’s world in Kairouan…
[embed]http://vimeo.com/48997222[/embed]
Tunisia’s street art scene is still developing and morphing as the cultural and artistic milieu of the country is continuing to be built up. In pioneering spirit, eL Seed returned this summer to his home town of Gabes, Tunisia, to paint a mural on the minaret of the Jara Mosque. The beautifully shot video, below, had thousands of hits within it's first week.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKNTkG5dr4A[/embed]
I caught up with eL Seed over the phone last week to hear about his experience in Gabes. Our conversation spanned issues from religion to logistics, and as often happens when talking with eL Seed, I always learn more about the precise intention and intelligence of this revolutionary artist.
•••
Kindle Project: Everybody wants a piece of eL Seed!
eL Seed: I’ve been wanting to do an interview with Kindle because you all were one of the first to support me.
KP: We’ll do it now! But we get it, we’re no Guardian or Al Jazeera, you gotta answer the big guys first.
ES: Do we make it like I don’t know you?
We both laugh.
KP: No, we make it like we know each other. The thing with Kindle is that because we’re close with our grantees it’s a more relaxed interview. We can have a real conversation. I like it more this way.
ES: I did an interview today with BBC radio which was cool… but I consider this more like a conversation.
KP: Me too. When I was reading through the interviews you’ve done recently I was wondering what you wished people would ask you.
ES: I don’t know…
(He gets distracted because his daughter in the background wants some juice. He playfully helps her out and relocates to a quieter space.)
ES: You know, people ask me the same questions all the time. How I started doing graffiti and etc.
KP: I was thinking about what you do, and how unique it is. I was reading the interview you did in Art Slant this morning and you spoke about the real problems of Tunisia, but it doesn’t seem like you’re ever given the opportunity to expand on it. Is there anything else you’d like to add about having just come home from Tunisia? Also, I didn’t realize that this was the first time in the Middle East that any graffiti or Calligraffiti had been done on a mosque, I’m wondering what the response was like and what that means for Tunisia right now?
ES: The funny thing is, I don’t know if you heard about what happened in Tunisia in May with the Printemps des Arts. I don’t want to judge any artists, but I feel like most of the artists there just wanted to provoke people. They knew that if they do something special that they will bring attention to themselves. For example, some people did a caricature of the prophet on a donkey and etc. but some people did not react well to that. It’s stuff that’s easy to play with. But, I don’t know. As an artist I don’t think that’s where we should be pointing today.
I think we need to focus more on the economic and political situation. Some religious extremists react very strongly and then the media brings a lot of attention to these projects. Others start talking about freedom of expression, and what happened at Primtemps des Arts is that so many artists had the same idea, to speak about Islam in a bad way.
KP: To criticize Islam in order to provoke extremists?
ES: Ya! So they [the extremists] came and broke some artwork and for me, both sides of this are really pathetic.
KP: It reminds me of when we first met and you told me about the evolution of using your name in your work to not including your name at all. It’s a different kind of humility that you express in your work. It can speak to a lot of people regardless of whether they know who you are or not.
[caption id="attachment_2539" align="alignleft" width="366"] 'This is just a phrase in Arabic'A piece by eL Seed in Los Angeles.http://www.elseed-art.com/this-is-just-a-phrase-in-arabic-los-angeles[/caption]
ES: Yes, exactly. Then, what happened after that, the people who commissioned me for my work in Kairouan asked me to come back and paint another wall. I said ok, but only if it was in my city of Gabes. We were looking for a wall, and we found the wall of this mosque which had never been painted. We made this decision right before the Printemps des Arts and then after that we realized it was the perfect time to do it. Because the point was to show Tunisia the two points of extremism: secular extremism and the religious extremism. Both of them agree on one point, that there’s no innovation or creativity or artistic expression in Islam.
KP: Do you see yourself as a middle point between these two extremes?
ES: Yes. I am an artist. I am Muslim. I painted graffiti on a mosque. Actually, when you speak about all of this it sounds so opposing. Graffiti and mosque. Artist and Muslim. In Tunisia if you are an artist you’re considered to be a bohemian who is smoking and neglecting himself.
KP: Is this some romanticized idea of what an artist is? Some kind of French, bohemia, turn-of-the-century kind of identity?
ES: Exactly
KP: Aside from you, are there other artists that don’t fit this mold that are responding to what you’re doing?
ES: I met some friends who are really responding to what I’m doing, but the bad thing is that some of my friends are the artists who did some work in Printemps des Arts. They were seeking the spotlight in a way.
KP: Is it hard to have a spotlight on your work in Tunisia?
ES: Yes, in some ways. Because, my wall didn’t have my name on it. There were so many guys (at Printemps des Arts) who wanted to talk about the same thing…
The minaret project came right after the Printemps des Arts, which was perfect timing because we could show there’s no opposition between being an artist and being Muslim, and between graffiti/Calligraffiti and a mosque. You know, there’s so many seemingly opposing things that I try to bring together. The funny thing is, that because it worked and everybody liked it in Tunisia, we got no media attention in Tunisia.
KP: Because people from both extremes were responding positively there was no need for the media to cover it because everybody was having a nice experience?
ES: Yes. There were more than ten papers that covered this piece but none of them were Tunisian…Even our good newspaper didn’t want to show it. If I had some people who were resisting the project and being violent towards me, the papers would have been there.
KP: But you had no resistance?
ES: No! Everybody liked it.
KP: You are so many things: you’re an artist, you’re a Muslim, you’re a father, and you live in many places. When you’re in Canada and when you’re in France do you have this same contradictory sense or is it just when you’re in Tunisia?
ES: I feel it everywhere. In France, I feel it more and more, because it’s different. They don’t accept you the way you are. It’s hard to say, “I’m an artist, I do graffiti, I paint in Arabic.” Doing graffiti in Arabic in France is really bad.
KP: Is this because of the anti-religion sentiment happening there?
ES: Yes, it’s anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and I felt it. If you check out my website you can read the Open Your Heart story there that describes a lot of this. I thought I was going to paint in Paris, and I was cleared by the Mayor, but then I wasn’t allowed to because it was going to be in Arabic script. That was really hard.
KP: And what about in Canada?
ES: It depends on if you’re in the French part.
KP: Right, because in Montreal you have a lot of French-speaking Arabs.
ES: Ya, but I don’t really paint here. I feel like people here are a lot like people in France. If they see Arabic writing they will feel fear.
KP: What about Arab Winter? Did that help at all?
ES: No. I mean, Arab Winter was really cool, but we didn’t have a lot of media exposure. We had one interview on CBC, that’s it. But we did have a very mixed crowd coming out.
KP: The thing that happens in Montreal is something similar to what happens in France, which is that if anyone presents themselves as religious at all and contemporary it’s a challenge too for that person to be a part of secular artistic practice. It’s a challenging for how we perceive artistic identity.
ES: But, I don’t even present myself as a Muslim artist. I wrote Qur’an on the mosque because it was a mosque but I have no interest in converting people to Islam. The verse on the mosque speaks to all humankind.
KP: That’s what I loved about this project. You could have chosen any passage from the Qur’an that could have inspired the community, but you made it a very universal experience.
ES: That was the point for me. To show that Islam is universal, in a way. It was also to share a message of peace.
KP: I also feel the text you chose to paint is one that is very relatable and present in other faiths as well.
ES: It’s my hope to bring more dialogue in Tunisia. That was the point of it.
KP: What’s next for you?
ES: I have a solo show in Paris and then I’m off to Melbourne. I’ll be painting at a festival in Melbourne. I’m also shooting my first short movie. I won’t tell you anything about it, but I think it will make you smile. I’ll tell you one thing. It’s the story of a postman.
KP: Ok, we’ll be waiting!
•••
eL Seed’s work in Gabes, supported by the Barjeel Art Foundation, has been covered by a number of news sources: CNN, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and Art Slant to name a few. While we always love reading his interviews, it’s an extra pleasure to get to speak with him ourselves.
He is, as he described, an apparent contradiction. At once fiercely confident about his work and his capacities, and also entirely humble and earnest. It’s easy to admire and support eL Seed: he’s collaborative, creative, inventive, and is perpetually pushing the boundaries. In cities around the world, he makes people question what street art is, and what graffiti is capable of.
Find eL Seed on Facebook
www.elseed-art.com

New Mexico Environmental Law Center The New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) has been with Kindle since our inception in 2008. They were one of our first grantees and have become our colleagues and friends. Taking on numerous cases dealing with a wide range of local issues the attorneys and staff at NMELC are working on a daily basis to help ensure the safety, protection and health of New Mexico’s land and communities. NMELC’s work on local community health and environment has vast national and international implications. By providing free legal counsel to their clients, these attorneys work with an altruistic mission and a true, personal passion for their work.
With 2012 marking NMELC’s 25th year in operation, it has been a year of great magnitude for the organization in many ways. While their many successes have brought much to celebrate, the passing of treasured staff member Sebia Hawkins has been a great loss. Sebia helped to spearhead the Law Center’s fight against Uranium mining in New Mexico; one of their central programs and of great importance to the staff and the communities they serve. Her unrelenting commitment to her work and people from all walks of life continues to motivate us.
Remarkable individuals, strong values, and family have been at the core of NMELC for decades. We are pleased to share with you these inspiring insiders’ accounts of how this small group of dedicated people has been of true service to New Mexico with their work.
The first piece below is by Don Goldman, member of the Law Center since 1988. He tells the story of NMELC’s humble beginnings, and how its founder, Douglas Meiklejohn, has nurtured it into what it is today. Don originally wrote this piece five years ago to celebrate the Law Center’s 20th anniversary, and it remains a relevant and inspiring read. The second piece is by Doug himself and gives an impressive update about their current work and the important headways they are making, with particular emphasis on the effects of having Governor Martinez in office since 2010.
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Reflecting Douglas’ values, the Law Center represents the “least powerful among us,“ usually communities that can’t afford legal counsel, but who live under threats to their health or environment.
By Don Goldman
[caption id="attachment_2516" align="alignleft" width="201"] Author Don Goldman and his wife, Lorraine[/caption]
Imagine an ambitious, talented lawyer with no corporate or wealthy clients, whose legal aspirations do not include remunerative civil suits or elective office; an attorney guided by family tradition and a personal recognition that our legal system should do more to represent the least powerful among us. And imagine a wife who shares those values and goals, who for over 40 years has supplied the moral and financial support needed to make reality out of good intentions. This is not imagination: it is Douglas and Harriet Meiklejohn.
In 1977 Doug came to New Mexico to work in the Attorney General’s office, working first in consumer protection efforts and last on environmental cases, a sensitivity that his parents had instilled in him. In 1987 however, Garrey Carruthers became Governor and Hal Stratton the Attorney General. Douglas painfully realized that their priorities did not include his central concerns, and that he could no longer address those concerns working for the state. The 80s were a period of increased social and environmental activism, with people around the U.S. experimenting with new, non-governmental ways of making change. In that heady time of making things better in spite of government, the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Southern Environmental Law Center, among others, were beginning to make laws and the legal system work for – not against – the environment. Moved by these non-governmental efforts to improve the environment, Douglas left state government and regular paychecks in 1987 and founded the Law Center.
With three young children, to call this a gamble is an understatement! But from the start, the Law Center had an angel keeping the Meiklejohn family afloat: her name is Harriet. She was then – as now – a librarian. It would take a long time for Douglas to be earning “lawyer’s wages;” he’s still waiting. He and Harriet live in the same small house they lived in then. Reflecting Douglas' values, the Law Center “represents the least powerful among us,” usually Indian tribes and poor Hispanic communities that can’t afford legal counsel, but who live under threats to their health or environment. Frequently, all costs of carrying a case to conclusion are borne by grants and private donations, not the client. Unfortunately, with its small staff and limited resources, the Law Center has to turn away approximately 80% of the cases that come to it.
A distinguishing Law Center characteristic is that it responds to requests from communities. It doesn’t tell them what they need; the community determines its needs and the Center helps it achieve them. The community members stay actively involved in the case; it’s their case, not the Center’s. It’s been a long haul since Douglas was a full-time volunteer founder-attorney. Today the Law Center and its staff of eight (including four attorneys) is recognized and honored for its work on behalf of New Mexico’s environment and communities.
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The New Mexico Environmental Law Center: 2007 – 2012
by Douglas Meiklejohn
[caption id="attachment_2518" align="alignleft" width="300"] NMELC Founder Douglas Meiklejohn and his wife, Harriet[/caption]
There have been two major changes affecting the New Mexico Environmental Law Center’s work since Don Goldman wrote his piece about the Law Center several years ago. The first change is our increased involvement in efforts by New Mexico communities to preserve the water on which they depend. The most significant of these cases is our effort to prevent the San Augustin Plains Ranch LLC, a foreign owned corporation, from extracting 54,000 acre feet (approximately 17.5 billion gallons) of ground water each year from the San Augustin Basin in western New Mexico. Locally, the extraction of that amount of ground water would dry up the water that is critical for many people in the area, including our 80 clients. Throughout New Mexico and the rest of the West, this case is a critical test of laws that prevent water speculation: what happens here could influence whether or not individuals or corporations can grab up water rights throughout the West in order to profit off of them in the future. We persuaded the New Mexico State Engineer to deny the permit for this extraction sought by the corporation, and we will endeavor to uphold that ruling in the corporation’s appeal to state court.
The second change is the approach of New Mexico state government agencies towards protection of communities and the environment. Governor Susana Martinez was elected in 2010 after she campaigned to do away with environmental regulations because they interfere with business. Since she came to power, our state’s executive agencies have worked to eliminate, weaken, and undermine enforcement of regulations put in place to protect communities and the environment. Regulations affected by these efforts include the Pit Rule (which was designed to prevent contamination of ground water by oil and gas extraction operations), the regulations limiting emissions of greenhouse gases (which were aimed at reducing New Mexico’s contribution to climate change), and the Green Building Codes (which were put in place to increase energy efficiency of new buildings). The Law Center has been resisting these and other efforts of the Martinez administration. Moreover, our attorneys frequently provide the only effective means of resistance because the only way to prevent the Martinez administration from achieving its goals is in the courts. We will continue to provide this resistance for as long as it is needed.
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The New Mexico Environmental Law Center continues to rouse and encourage us, as they always have. As Sebia herself was so fond of saying about the Law Center, they are “small but mighty”. From them, we learn about what a tremendous amount of important and impactful work a small team can do. We also learn about the intricacies of environmental justice advocacy and how necessary legal support and action is essential to the movement. From these pieces by Don and Douglas we are reminded that the most profound work comes from a deep personal commitment. Similar to how the Government Accountability Project’s President, Louis Clark, described the impetus of the whistleblower, Don gave us the gift of a behind the scenes glimpse into the personal story of our colleague and friend who has helped paved the way for this gracefully determined organization.
NMELC Website
NMECL Facebook Page

Announcement of 2012 Makers Muse Recipients • JIBZ CAMERON • MIRANDA JULY • JOSH MACPHEE • CARLOS MOTTA •
•NOVA RUTH • MARJANE SATRAPI • FARDIN WAEZI •
It’s almost fall again, and with the season comes year four of the Makers Muse Award. We’ve spent the last year trawling the Internet, our cinemas, galleries, memory-banks, and libraries for the inventive and bizarre. While some have captivated us for years, others are new fascinations; this year’s recipients epitomize the awesome and the valorous.
Through the use of video, graphic novels, performance, writing, installation, web projects, design, archiving, music, and photography, the 2012 awardees all have a profoundly interdisciplinary edge to them. Tackling issues from justice to sexuality, uprisings to economy, these individuals will surely galvanize and provoke you.
Coming from the US, Afghanistan, Iran, and Indonesia we present to you the 2012 Makers Muse Award recipients.

Government Accountability Project Before I tell you about the Government Accountably Project, (GAP) I need to tell you about my experience with the people that work there. When I first wrote Michael Termini to inquire about their interest in contributing to our blog, I was met with a most extraordinary response. To discuss blog content options, he set up a conference call for me with four of GAP’s staff people, including GAP’s Director, Louis Clark. I was delighted to connect with them, but was also thoroughly impressed by how this team works: with complete commitment, resolve, timeliness and attention.
Our first contact with GAP was in 2011 when Kindle Project Director, Sadaf Cameron reached out to them to see if they could be of assistance to one of the whistleblowers that we know and were working with at the time. Sadaf was met with the same attentive eagerness and care as I was. Availability, interest and immediate response in service of individual whistleblowers seem to be constitutionally embedded in GAP’s mission:
The Government Accountability Project’s mission is to promote corporate and government accountability by protecting whistleblowers, advancing occupational free speech, and empowering citizen activists.
Through GAP’s legal protection and advocacy of whistleblowers their programmatic reach and expertise spans several areas. With emphasis on national security, food integrity, environment and human rights, to name a few, GAP provides an educational framework and essential news for the country’s most pressing issues. With 35 years of operation they have taken their work on the road with their American Whistleblower Tour. The Tour visits universities throughout the country, helping to connect active whistleblowers with students. They have had a tremendous success with the tour and are starting it up again this fall, with their kickoff event taking place at the University of Houston, Clear Lake on November 5, 2012. This event will feature Kathryn Bolkovac who blew the whistle on sex trafficking involving UN staff and DynCorp in Bosnia-Herzegovina. If you’re in the region be sure to attend.
The article below by Louis Clark describes with great sensitivity and nuances the importance and impact of work they do, and how they are handing this knowledge and unique activism to younger generations.
Whistleblowers: Contemporary Davids vs. Goliaths
by Louis Clark
In today's world, it's difficult for David to triumph over Goliath. Hollywood loves to rewrite history by mythologizing heroes who are remembered as being single-handedly responsible for changing it. Essentially, the “power of one” storyline is more memorable than the “it takes a village” approach.
The truth of the matter lies elsewhere, as both are required to make progress. It takes courageous visionaries and legions of supporters to disrupt the status quo, build a movement, and implement enduring change.
The whistleblower phenomenon itself is a microcosm of societal evolution, where a problematic issue is raised, and measures taken to solve it. Typically, a whistleblower takes a moral stand: refusing to go along with a crooked scheme, follow illegal orders, remain silent in the face of specific public health dangers, etc. The question becomes whether this courageous person will drown beneath the waves they created. The answer rests with all of us. When confronted with evil, what do good people do? Whistleblowers either sow the seeds of their own destruction or become catalysts for reform. How society and individuals respond to truth-tellers make us either accomplices to wrongdoing or citizen activists on the right side of history.
Thirty-five years ago, as a young lawyer with a seemingly irrelevant divinity degree and church ordination, I met my first whistleblowing client. A computer wizard and quality assurance specialist, he had exposed defects in the Pentagon’s Worldwide Command and Control Intercomputer Network. He had lost his job, career, and 65 pounds that he could ill-afford. The computer network eventually crashed and was abandoned as dysfunctional. But the whistleblower was professionally overtaken by the hornet's nest he had kicked, and I lost my first case.
[caption id="attachment_2382" align="alignleft" width="300"] GAP’s Jesselyn Radack, a Justice Department whistleblower herself, interviews SEC whistleblower Gary Aguirre on the Tour.[/caption]
Though the corrupt bureaucracy prevailed in that case, my life changed dramatically for the better: I had discovered my calling. I ran across the fledgling Government Accountability Project, found benefactors to put up my salary for a year, offered myself as staff counsel, and convinced the organization to offer legal services to whistleblowers. My church elders recognized my services to those facing difficult ethical workplace decisions as a valid ministry, and stopped pushing me to take a parish assignment.
Now decades later, the efforts and gifts of thousands who also see whistleblowers as key catalysts for reform have transformed GAP into the world’s most prominent whistleblower support organization. GAP legislative initiatives have provided legal protections for 100 million private sector workers, as well as millions of public employees and thousands working for international institutions.
Perhaps more importantly for civil society, revelations from GAP clients have changed the country. To cite just a few examples, our whistleblowers have directly resulted in the collapse of the “pink slime” market, the halting or revamping of numerous billion-dollar nuclear plant projects, the end of the secret program to turn climate change science draft reports over to the White House for editing by former oil lobbyists, the withdrawal from the market of unsafe drugs proven to have killed tens of thousands, and the ouster of the World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz despite his strong political support from Executive Branch.
All of these whistleblowers needed their village of support. Lawyers kept them at their jobs. Investigators substantiated their claims. Journalists exposed the underlying scandals to the masses. Congress forced reform. Whistleblowers inspire others to take a stand and show support for what's right.
[caption id="attachment_2381" align="alignleft" width="300"] A student reads up on whistleblowers before a Tour stop begins. The American Whistleblower Tour is aimed at our country's incoming workforce - college students.[/caption]
And now, we're reaching the country's youth. Last year, we took whistleblowers from a broad cross-section of disciplines to college campuses on our American Whistleblower Tour. We sought to supplement textbook studies on business, journalism and law with exposure to individuals who uncovered workplace wrongdoing and made a significant societal impact. Most Tour stops culminated in climactic final events where truth-tellers spoke of their values, experiences, observations, and advice.
Turnout was phenomenal. We drew over 2,000 students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and over 800 to several events at Florida International University. Historical whistleblowers Frank Serpico and Daniel Ellsberg joined with such newcomers as Susan Wood (FDA officer who resigned over political delays of the ‘Plan-B’ contraceptive approval), Thomas Drake (National Security Agency whistleblower on illegal and wasteful surveillance of US citizens), Ken Kendrick (peanut butter contamination at food processing facilities), Richard Bowen (Citigroup mortgage fraud); and Walter Tamosaitis (quality assurance breakdown at what will be the world's largest nuclear waste treatment facility).
In response to the Tour, thirty college faculty members have joined in an effort to develop curriculum that can be integrated into all kinds of academic studies. More importantly, the whistleblowers are directly impacting the lives of students. One stated "There is more for me to think about since I will become a public accountant after graduation." We're giving students the information they need to form an educated opinion, as another student stated:
"Initially I thought people were turning minute issues into finger pointing of who was wrong and right. Now I know the people who choose to blow the whistle are true public servants who made decisions to protect the public's interest."
This is the future. The continued outreach to our youth only serves to ensure that whistleblowing at all levels is recognized, accepted, and protected. It is inevitable that every facet of our society realize that this workplace phenomenon translates to justice and accountability.
And with that, progress is ensured. The workplace conscience of our nation is changing.
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[caption id="attachment_2378" align="alignleft" width="199"] GAP President Louis Clark has been with the organization since 1977[/caption]
GAP is part of our new roster of grantees. Our emerging relationship with them brings access to a wealth of knowledge and insight into whistleblowers and the realities they face on a daily basis. We are committed to the purpose of whistleblowing and through our grantees, like GAP and Honest Appalachia we are learning not only about the various ways that they can be protected but also about the serious issues that these individuals are taking major risks for.
What Louis Clark shares with us today is a reminder of how the work that GAP does affects citizens at all levels: from spiritual to practical, and from physical to economic. We are proud to support GAP, and hope that you consider supporting them as well. We are avid followers of their posts on their Facebook page, which includes a Daily Whistleblower News post. You can also visit their Action Center to stay informed and connected.
Louis Clark is President of the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
www.whistleblower.org

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year! With a quarter century of work under its belt, this organization has made tremendous contributions of scientific analysis and technical expertise in nuclear energy, weapons, health, and the environment. They have published work in multiple languages, and have trained countless concerned citizens, volunteers and organizations to be knowledgeable advocates for health and safety of their communities and their land.
While choosing which organizations to fund, we are often drawn to those that might not get financial support as easily as others. They are often small organizations, occasionally newly-founded ones, and often doing precedent-setting work in their fields. In the case of IEER, who we’ve been funding since our inception in 2008, our commitment to them is rooted in their expertise with innovation: they are trailblazing educators who make technical knowledge not only accessible, but useable, and our steadfast support of their work and its significance is something I had the chance to explore when speaking with IEER’s President, Dr. Arjun Makhijani this July.
The video below gives you a glimpse into his expertise via his debate with Dr. Patrick Moore on the future of nuclear energy. When reading through our conversation below, we’re certain you’ll find his work with IEER as compelling as we do.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW4VDC35his[/embed]
To watch the full debate please click here.
To stay informed about IEER’s summer workshop series and to read their factsheets, reports, and news, be sure to subscribe to their newsletter and follow them on Facebook.
Many thanks to Dr. Makhijani for taking the time to speak with us and Happy Anniversary to IEER!
Kindle Project Interviews Arjun Makhijani
Kindle Project: Hello Arjun! Tell me, what would you like to talk about? IEER works in so many different fields, and I’m wondering, what is the most exciting thing you’d like to share now, in your 25th year of operation?
Arjun Makhijani: Let’s talk about our workshop and what happens.
KP: I would love that! Especially since I was able to attend part of one of them last year and I was intrigued…
AM: There’s actually a bit of a good funding story associated with that: every summer we have a technical training workshop for activists and community leaders, and sometimes there are high school and college students that attend.
It started about 20 years ago when I raised the whole budget for our program… those were the days! I only needed about $9000 of the $20,000 our funder had sent, and the ED called and asked us to do something good with it. How could I give back to the community with great confidence? I need to do something extra. So I decided that we should do a technical training workshop. That’s how it started and it was such a success.
You know, the environmental and security business is quite technical. Environmental regulations, radiation doses — a lot of people who are activists and non-activists are kind of weary of numbers, but to really to be able to read the environmental reports and to make sense of them…you need to be able to read the numbers. That’s how we started.
We had people at all levels of training: people who had finished their PhD’s and some who hadn’t even finished high school were all in the same room together, and this system has been working for 20 years now. People leave our workshops with both knowledge, and a sense of empowerment.
[caption id="attachment_2343" align="alignleft" width="300"] From summer workshop in 2005: Radiation Risks: Are People Created Equal?[/caption]
KP: And all of these people came to your workshops out of a concern for what was happening in their community and needed a better understanding of the technical elements of their community challenges. Is that right?
AM: Yes. We were set up to make a contribution to people’s understanding of environmental pollution and security matters, what plutonium is, and things like that. It’s been very amazing. In one case I think they stopped a uranium processing proposal. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of.
KP: And are the workshops focused on a different theme each summer?
AM: Yes. This year we think that with the trends in Fukushima, people are finally beginning to see that nuclear energy is a thing of the past; that it’s not a sensible way to boil water and make electricity. We are focusing on what the future of nuclear energy may be after Fukushima.
KP: From my experience at the workshop it seems that you’re not only providing technical information in a way that people can understand it in order to relate to issues happening in their community, but also you’re training them in multiple aspects of critical thought.
AM: Yes. Every workshop is five days long so it’s like a small university summer course, and the last two days of the workshops are full of presentations by the participants [outlining the challenges in their communities]. What happens then is that everybody, including us, learns a lot about what is happening across the country and it gives all participants a sense of respect. Everybody is working on some aspect of the issue, depending on what the theme is that year. Then, participants, get an automatic perspective of their work and where it fits in. It’s a great time for networking! And this pleases me a great deal!
KP: I know that IEER, like so many other organizations, is having financial troubles, which must be frustrating and confusing. I was thinking about the fact that you’ve been around for 25 years…
AM: It’s ironic that it should be this year. These are tough times.
KP: They are tough times. I’m wondering, as you reflect upon the past 25 years, are there magical moments for you with your work with IEER, aside from this program?
[caption id="attachment_2361" align="alignleft" width="300"] Cynthia Sauer and her daughter Sarah sit with Arjun at the July 2012 workshop. Sarah had a cancerous brain tumor removed in 2001, diagnosed when she was seven years old.[/caption]
AM: You know, very early on we had a lawyer walk in the door and she said, “Will you do estimates of radioactivity releases and radiation doses from this nuclear weapons plant because there’s been a class action law suit that has been filed.” This is a plant near Cincinnati called the Fernald Plant and they process half a million tons of uranium, mainly for reactors in Washington State and Carolina. It turned out that some wells had been contaminated and they hadn’t told the people who had been using the water. Those affected filed a class action suit when they found out, and we did the first-ever independent estimate of radiation releases from a nuclear weapons plant.
This was in 1988-89, and in the middle of that year the government settled the case for $78 million and 14,000 people were awarded 20 years of medical monitoring. We found out there was fabricated data as well as bad calculations, and we also found that the releases were much bigger than what the government had claimed. The Center for Disease Control then commissioned an independent study from a third party to estimate releases… I went to Cincinnati to sit in the audience of the press conference to see what would happen. Their numbers were very close to ours and I was very, very pleased; not just that people who were neighbors of a nuclear weapons plant received medical monitoring, but that they got it on the basis of work that was technically sound.
KP: And this was all just a couple years after IEER began?
AM: Well, the first lawsuit was a couple years after we began…We did the first Renewable Energy Feasibility Study for the US that was ever done, and created a Handbook for activists who wanted to protect the ozone layer. That was really, really successful—we played a really big role in helping activists get rid of CFC’s.
KP: You’ve done such a wide variety of things! It’s baffling to think that it would be a challenge to get funding for the work you do, considering how important and effective it is. Is it the economy?
AM: I think it’s the economy and the changed times. In the 90’s it was very easy [to get funding]. It was after the fall of the Soviet Union, and people were worried about the nuclear weapons pollution created in their neighborhoods. Now, people’s worries are more immediate in terms of the economy and their jobs, so attention has started to wane. We’ve also won a lot of victories and things are starting to become regulated.
KP: Do you think there’s any kind of complacently happening in terms of nuclear issues even though Fukushima happened?
AM: That’s been a kind of a surprise. Last year we got $40,000 from a donor who had not funded us before, and apparently it was a direct result of my having been on TV all the time, talking about Fukushima and putting out press releases, and we had obviously done a lot of work on these various subjects. This [my experience] allowed me to react quickly and give the public an idea of exactly what was going on.
KP: I remember. We were watching carefully what you were putting out. We’re big fans.
AM: What a consultant told me last year is that I’m an endangered species. That I’m doing science for democratic action, helping grassroots with science, and there aren’t a lot of people doing that anymore. Some of our most profound successes come from doing this type of work….You can’t do it with technical skills alone.
KP: The summer workshops seem to do just that—building technical skills and community at the same time.
AM: That’s right. They also give the technical skills to the people who are doing the organizing, who go and testify at their state legislatures, who pressure the EPA, who talk to their senators and their congressmen. That’s who we work with. Our technical work is for the folks who are immediately able to make use of it.
KP: What is your hope for IEER in the next 25 years?
AM: Well, I’m 67 and part of my project is to pass on the ethos of our work; how we work. We stick to issues. We don’t attack individuals just because they are working on nuclear power—we don’t do that. We work on issues and we try to do a technically thorough job. We learn to talk to people we don’t necessarily agree with, and to have an objective third party be happy with our science. To pass this way of working onto a younger generation of strong young scientists who’ll carry on our work—I would be so happy with that.
We have not worked a lot on the jobs questions, and we haven’t done a lot of work on water and I think it’s important that we focus on that as well. We need to better be able to address job-related issues, not just through modeling. It’s not enough. It doesn’t affect the real hurt that a lot of communities have, like the water problems that we’re facing, and the amount of water that energy consumes. I hope we will start [some projects] with new directions.
KP: Last call to action? Is there anything you’d want our readers to know about or take action on?
AM: I’m actually very hopeful that we can get a renewal energy economy. I think that if all the University Presidents who made renewable energy commitments actually fulfilled them with some urgency then I think it would do a great deal to stimulate the markets for the renewable energy sector.
Also, if the students could push the universities to not only clean up their stock portfolios for their endowments, but to also give micro-grants on their campuses and install renewable energy grids on their campuses then I think we’d start to see a shift.
I think with a sufficient push we could make oil obsolete. Someone said that the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. I think we should think the same way about oil. The age of petroleum won’t end because we run out of it.
[caption id="attachment_2339" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dr. Arjun Makhijani[/caption]
Arjun Makhijani is President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972, specializing in nuclear fusion.
For full bio please click here.

Grantee Feature: Planned Parenthood New Mexico Planned Parenthood. It’s almost a dirty word in some parts of the United States. The highly contested national organization has been under some form of attack continuously for some years now. Their mission, as is stated on their website:
Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide. For more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has promoted a commonsense approach to women’s health and well-being, based on respect for each individual’s right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning.
Every member of the Kindle Project team is a fierce advocate of women’s rights, reproductive justice and education in our own way. While women’s health and their rights to health and education somehow remain a deeply contentious issue in the States, it is important, now more than ever, to support the solid efforts of groups like these, whose mission as stated above we see nothing contentious about.
At Kindle Project we’ve traditionally funded smaller organizations and projects that are less likely to receive foundation grants. However, this year, an election year in the United States, we could not ignore the grave status of women’s health. We knew that funding our local chapter of Planned Parenthood New Mexico (PPNM) was our priority.
PPNM programming covers a very broad range of issues that effect men, women and children. They deliver programs that offer medically accurate sexual health information to youth in Santa Fe. They hold Girls’ Groups that provide services for at-risk youth and workshops to help navigate communication between children and adults about the challenges of adolescence. They also offer a peer education program that trains teenagers to be equipped with the resources to educate their peers about sexual health. This is just some of what they do, and already, it’s a lot. A quick visit to their website will show you the rest of their programming and services, and like other Planned Parenthood chapters internationally they are a highly credible and trusted resource for so many people, and so many young women.
As a Canadian woman having worked with the women’s movement in Quebec with YWCA Montreal, I know the very real challenges of running Girls’ Groups and working with young women who are in extremely difficult situations. I know about the struggle to continue to apply for grants from government bodies and foundations, trying always to prove the validity and utter necessity of the work. I know how hard that was in my Canadian context and I know that these challenges are doubly harder for my colleagues working in the United States. The kind of perseverance it takes, both at an institutional level and on a personal one, is tremendous. You hear the most horrifying stories, and you also have the chance to witness some of the most incredible healing in young women who have benefitted and found solace, guidance and education in your programs.
When I asked Samia van Hattum of PPNM to contribute a piece for our blog about her work I knew there were many avenues she could take. Driving home the continued necessity to support such programs, she shares with us a very personal account of her experience through small anecdotes with big impact.
Stories from a Sex Educator
by Samia van Hattum
People ask me why I do this kind of work.
8pm. Phone beeps. Text message: “Hi Samia. Do you have a moment?” It is one of my girls. I tell her I am available to talk or text, whichever she prefers. She says she needs to talk to someone she can trust. I make sure to include an ‘I am required by law to report any abuse’ reminder in my “of course, I am here for you to talk to anytime” response. “My counselor says I should start telling people I trust a lot so I thought of you…” My student has been discussing her questioning of her sexuality with her counselor and has decided that I am the first person, after her counselor, to whom she feels comfortable coming out. I try to find the right words to make sure I honor what she has just disclosed to me. I tell her that her counselor is giving her good advice about the importance of having people she can trust to talk to as she explores, discovers, and figures out her sexuality. The conversation lasts for all of 26 minutes and is completely via text message. “Thank you for everything this year Samia, it was life changing…”.
A month later. 9:30pm. Phone beeps. Text message. Same student. “Samia, I need help…” I let her know I am free to talk. She responds: “What’s the difference between bisexual and pansexual?” I define the terms. We discuss sexuality. Mostly she asks questions and I answer. She has come out to some of her friends, a group of 13 and 14-year-old girls. Not too surprisingly, the spectrum of sexuality appears to be completely lost on them. They want a label, a definition, a box in which they can put their friend. She herself is not sure; she also is a 14-year-old girl looking for a label to help her understand herself and explain herself to those around her. “SAMIA! I’M ALL MIXED UP! Imma explode while exploring!” I explain that what other people think is not important. I explain that sexuality is not something that can be simplified in a black and white manner with the slapping on of a name label. I explain that her sexuality is not necessarily anyone else’s business unless she wants it to be. I explain that labels do not matter or really mean much but explain that human beings like labels in order to be able to box and categorize each other in our minds. I empathize with her frustration. I tell her about the term “questioning,” and suggest that maybe if she really wants a label to use, this might be a helpful term with which to familiarize herself. This conversation lasts 39 minutes and is completely via text message.
Two days later. 8pm. Phone beeps. Text message. “So, i promised i would tell u about the girl i met…” 57 minutes.
People ask me why I do this kind of work. I think they expect a political response or statistics on sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancy rates. It is not sufficient for teenagers to be told about the risks and consequences of sex. What is important is that they are shown that it is possible to have healthy conversations with people they trust about sexuality. Safe spaces need to be created for young people where trusting relationships are facilitated and fostered so that trust based communication and healthy conversations on the topics of sex and sexuality can take place. Everyone deserves to have a safe person to talk to and access to accurate, factual information about sexuality.
Why do I do this kind of work? I do this kind of work so this young woman has a safe and trusted adult in her life to talk to as she endeavors to understand her own sexuality.
•••
Please share this piece as the months towards the Whitehouse election draw closer. Look up your local Planned Parenthood chapter. Inform yourself and your community of their essential services and try to remember Samia’s stories and all the women and men like Samia that provide these important services and relationships to young people.
•••
Samia van Hattum, LMSW is the Planned Parenthood of New Mexico Bilingual Community Health Educator serving Santa Fe and the Northern New Mexico region. Samia is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the Santa Fe Peer Education Program, organizing and facilitating Middle School Girls’ Groups, as well as teaching comprehensive reproductive and sexual health education both in the Santa Fe Middle and High Schools as well as in community settings.
Image Source: "It's about heath and safety" via Planned Parenthood North Carolina

War is Business We first started funding War is Business (WIB) in 2010. We were initially taken with the site’s veracity and unique content that is at once accessible and participatory. These attributes, combined with Corey’s impressive investigative journalism track record, assured us that this start-up was something to pay attention to. WIB is a startup news site covering military contracting and the global arms trade. With content aggregated from anyone who wishes to submit, the site goes one step further than a Wiki as all submissions are reviewed thoroughly by the WIB team.
The WIB interactive map is an impressive feature of the site. As an individual, it can be all too easy to separate oneself from the military-industrial complex that Corey describes below. What his site does, in part, is makes it all very personal. I can search for war contractor companies near where I live, see the faces of the people running these companies and be encouraged to do my own research and contribute. WIB takes something so enormous, so untouchable, and makes it personal. This is the spark of what this organization does that is so phenomenal.
[embed]http://vimeo.com/16030115#[/embed]
Below, Corey shares with us the genesis of WIB, its ins and outs, challenges and success, and how you can get involved. Here is an incredible opportunity to read some great writing from an impassioned and fiercely devoted reporter.
Genesis and Reflections of War is Business
by Corey Pein
War Is Business is a unique and somewhat experimental journalism project. It is small in size, with one editor (that's me) and a handful of volunteer contributors and coders.
But it is big in ambition, taking on two urgent threats to the prerequisites of democracy: a lack of information and a concentration of power.
[caption id="attachment_2301" align="alignleft" width="291"] Corey Pein[/caption]
This project aims not only to enlighten people about the world around them by offering independent coverage of a complex, poorly understood and enormously influential sector of the economy, but also find and demonstrate a model for sustainable investigative journalism at a time when the traditional funding sources for that kind of journalism are fast disappearing.
Say what you will about the mainstream media, but the current crisis facing newspapers and broadcast news organizations means that fewer skilled reporters are at work uncovering important information about government and the economy. Those reporters still employed at traditional media organizations are under pressure to produce more copy on increasingly trivial subjects. Many former reporters are going to work for P.R. firms—spinning one-sided stories instead of searching for the truth—or joining investment banks and hedge funds, thus ensuring that the only people with access to good information are those who can pay for it.
The timing for this crisis in journalism couldn't be worse. That's because the most important information about the world we live in is getting harder and harder to find.
Increasingly, the framing of public discussion and the course of global events are shaped less by public figures accountable to an electorate—that is, politicians—and more by private interests: wealthy and powerful individuals accountable to no one, or at least, to no voter.
A few areas of the private sector are particularly powerful within the United States: Finance, energy, healthcare and what President Dwight D. Eisenhower first called the military-industrial complex. (There may be others, but in 10 years of reporting and writing in the U.S. and abroad, these are the few that stand out has having outsize influence.)
That last sector, the military-industrial sector, operates virtually free of scrutiny while enjoying virtually unlimited sums of public money, money that is more and more often channeled directly into private hands through outsourcing. Most former generals and admirals now go on to lucrative post-retirement careers working for the contractors they once oversaw. The privatization process, pitched as a way to increase efficiency, has actually created a perverse set of financial incentives to perpetuate armed conflict.
This is why Eisenhower singled out the military-industrial complex. Nowhere else are the consequences of corruption so dramatic and so dire.
That's more or less my rationale for starting War Is Business. For now the project exists chiefly as a website, warisbusiness.com, with three main features:
1.) Original reporting and commentary on military contracting and the arms trade.
2.) Aggregation of news on those subjects from hundreds of other sources.
3.) A public data bank, thousands of pages deep, that seeks to put names and faces on the people who profit from armed conflict—to make public figures of powerful private interests.
Few independent news sites are doing these things, and no others are doing them all in combination.
For the most part the defense sector gets covered by trade journals that exist thanks to advertising from… the defense sector! Hence they tend to avoid critical coverage.
The website launched in September 2010. I'd gotten the idea for it some six months before, while working at the Santa Fe Reporter, although it had been gestating for many years without my being aware of it, feeding on observations collected over a number of reporting jobs in far-flung places around the world.
New Mexico occasionally presented the opportunity to write about semi-secret military research projects and nuclear security boondoggles. The state remains in many ways a kind of military colony within the borders of the U.S., a harsh and inequitable place where chemists, physicists and weapons designers draw huge paychecks from defense contractors while their neighbors—descendants of native people and their Hispanic conquerors—struggle, having little hope for advancement and basically zero expectation of government beneficence.
At that point I'd also done investigative reporting stints in Oregon, a state whose economy has suffered during this recession from an absence of large military bases, and in a half-Confederate, All-American base town in Georgia that happened to be the home of the second-largest National Security Agency presence outside of Fort Meade, Maryland.
Prior to that, I worked at an English-language newspaper in Bangkok, Thailand, where I met elderly veterans of the CIA's secret wars in Cambodia and Laos, and learned to my surprise that many large American arms deals with poorer nations are done an a so-called "offset trade" basis. That means the poorer country can pay for some expensive new gear like fighter jets with mundane commodities like rice, or chickens. Strange but true.
So I had come across all of these stories over the years, and they all seemed pretty important and telling in their own way, and I was I suppose a little frustrated at how hard it was to convey that in the locally focused newspapers where I'd been working.
The experience of launching War Is Business was something I imagine to be like giving birth one day, all of a sudden, without having known you were pregnant. And once the idea was there, I had to feed it.
To save money on a limited launch budget I built the website myself, having only dabbled in small-time blogging prior to that and with programming skills many years out of date. For the better part of a year I worked overtime almost exclusively on getting War Is Business up and running and flush with information. Now, with some help from a skilled developer, I'm now in the process of preparing a redesign and re-launching of the website, which in its first year gained many readers but fewer donors.
I'm also in the process of retooling some of the business and administrative aspects of the site, with an eye on making the entire project more financially stable and sustainable. This may include requiring a nominal subscription fee to access some features of the site that are especially costly and time-consuming to produce—especially the original reporting.
I'd like to once again thank the Kindle Project for helping get War Is Business site off the ground.
With big problems, people often wonder how they can help. In this case, the answer is simple. Read the site. Tell your friends about it. Spend 15 minutes exploring the maps on the site to learn about the defense contractors near your town. Invest another 15 minutes researching one of those companies online, and enter what you find—that makes you a contributor!
•••
It’s rare to get a full picture of an organization in its early stages. More often than not, urgency drives all moves at the beginning of a project and it can be a challenge to take the needed time to reflect and critically think about the work.
For our last blog post we were fortunate enough to have the earnest reflections from High Mayhem’s Director, which allowed us to peer into the challenging underbelly of a successful art collective. Now, having had the opportunity to learn more about Corey Pein and his impressive initiative, we’re all the more encouraged to ask these sensitive and behind the scenes questions to our grantees because we’re finding it gives us the most fascinating answers, and helps us understand the intricacy of the work we support.
Please visit the WIB site, read, explore and contribute.
www.warisbusiness.com

High Mayhem Kindle Project has been funding High Mayhem since 2009. As a local art collective with leaders and members who are our friends and collaborators, they have always impressed us with how they’ve done so much with so little. The same can be said of many of our grantees. However, each member of the Kindle team has been or is currently involved in some form of artistic practice and as such we know how challenging it can be not only to make art, but to share it while engaging our communities.
When High Mayhem submitted their grant proposal to us this spring, we had a renewed burst of energy for this long-time grantee. We’ve seen what they’re capable of in terms of the kinds of offerings they give to the community of Santa Fe, how they work and train young artists, and how their doors are open to so many forms of unfettered creativity. But this year, with their proposal also came a letter from High Mayhem’s Director, Carlos Santistevan. The letter was such an honest and earnest exploration of what it takes to thrive as an art collective that we were compelled to publish it here.
For anyone interested or involved with an arts collective – this is an essential read.
Battling Through Longevity as an Art Collective
by Carlos Santistevan, Director of High Mayhem
High Mayhem Emerging Arts is entering its 11th year as a not-for-profit all volunteer arts collective. During this time we have had to continually evolve, redefine and refocus our efforts in an attempt to keep the collective alive despite member changes, life changes, and the powers that be. It has been challenging, but somehow we have endured and continue to evolve as an organization and as artists.
I think whenever a legitimate art collective emerges it is a confluence of many forces.
[caption id="attachment_2282" align="alignright" width="166"] Carlos Santistevan[/caption]
There has to be the need in the community for such a thing to exist (a void to be filled), the right people have to come together or meet at the right time, and the right physical space needs to exist or make itself available. All these things coming together at the right time creates an almost celestial happening, and those that become part in giving birth to this new creative outlet are lucky to find themselves in the middle of such a convergence.
If the community is ripe for it and the art is good enough, generally the art collective will be able to make a “big splash” in the community. There is a lot of hype and people are quick and eager to jump on and help in whatever way they can. They find nourishment in what the collective provides and it’s refreshing to be able to feel the power of what a large community can achieve when working together. Through riding such a wave High Mayhem put on eight large 3-day multimedia experimental arts festivals and hundreds of shows to our community. Bands and artists seemed to pop out of nowhere, and while often little known or unheard outside our immediate community, these acts made huge impacts locally, and nurtured an artistic development that could never otherwise have been born.
But what happens when the bubble begins to burst or fade out? Critical members experience serious life changes, people begin to donate less time and energy, kids are born, family or career pulls people in other directions and places, rent is hard to collect or raise, people that have no interest in the art show up to events simply cause it's “happening” and cause fights that tear at the heart of the organization. How does an art collective survive against these odds? The laws of the universe (entropy) make all things move towards chaos and disharmony. How does an art collective rise above this? Or can it?
For a long while we got caught up in the hype that surrounded our organization and really raised the public’s awareness and programmed and produced more events than we should have. While it was fun and cool, it actually began to endanger our collective. We began to put energies toward putting on and producing events instead of focusing on our own art as artists. People began to burn out. We made many great connections and brought in lots of inspiration, but didn’t leave enough time for us to nourish our own art.
The other issue with raising our profile publicly was that people began to come to events not for the art, but for the scene surrounding us. While we understood this was usually a good thing as people became exposed to art they never otherwise would, it also became dangerous as people with no interest or reason to be at an event showed up and started trouble. Fights and guns showed up in a place that we grew from our heart and these things were painful for us to accept. Along with this, Police and Fire Marshalls began showing up to events and shut us down. We were told our house turned art space only had an official capacity of seven, and without tens of thousands of dollars of renovation we could not host public events. We became too visible, and eventually lost our art space as a result.
After we lost our space, we were unsure what would happen. We eventually got to the point where we realized this was an opportunity to go back to our roots; to go back underground and really focus on our art. So that is what has kept us going for the past 3 or so years. We have drastically reduced our public presence. We know that every time we put on a public event at our space, the authorities or people that simply “don't get it” could take this away from us. We are weary of the press for the attention it brings. We have made our new art space our laboratory where we challenge each other, grow, develop, document, and occasionally showcase our creative efforts.
Despite these challenges, somehow High Mayhem is still here. Our light has faded in the public or hipster eye, but the art that is being created today by High Mayhem artists shows a level of sophistication and maturity that could only exist by having gone through and endured all this. By placing our priority on our own artistic growth and development we have endured through many ebbs and flows. Our art has served to guide us through these challenges. As just about any artist will tell you, the reason they create is to help them cope with the immensity of life. In this case, our art has guided us individually and collectively through these processes and kept High Mayhem's pulse strong.
At this point we are now challenged with how do we get our art more recognized and not challenge our very existence? We are exploring ways to exploit more digital media and means of broadcasting to a wider global community. This summer we are working on designing and installing a live internet broadcasting system as well as recording and filming various local and touring artists to establish a video series of musical sessions recorded at our studio. We are putting our faith into the idea that this will fill the gap between artist and audience, but know that we will continually need to reassess and redirect our energies if we are going to continue to survive, and like any life form, our decisions are based upon survival in an environment that tries to choke the life out of art collectives.
•••
Reflection, sincerity, humility and perseverance reverberate off of Carlos’ letter, acting as a relatable reminder to other art collectives to stay strong, to shy away from the notoriety of popularity, and return always to the art.
Stay in touch with High Mayhem’s work via their Facebook page and their website.

Grantee Feature: Honest Appalachia A conversation with Jimmy Tobias – Getting to Know Honest Appalachia
It is undeniable: the state of media is changing rapidly every single day. Our traditional modes of getting news via local newspapers and radio stations is being challenged and in many places is at severe risk. With the 24-hour news cycle, we all have to be more diligent than ever in paying attention to the kind of news we are receiving, and supporting.
With the massive attention that Wikileaks received last year, and continues to receive today, sharing sensitive information that whistleblowers work hard to uncover is significantly more dangerous. While Wikileaks opened the doors to information sharing and document exposing from whistleblowers it also highlighted their status and perceived threat: though whistleblowers are some societies’ unsung heroes, they are seen as terrorists and traitors by many people in positions of power. While I know this may sound like a dramatic statement, there is something wildly dramatic about devoting one’s life to exposing truths in the face of potential danger and legal threat.
At Kindle Project, the open sharing of information and news is something that we are passionate about. To this end, we were more than happy to invite the new start-up organization, Honest Appalachia, to be a part of our grantee community this spring.
[caption id="attachment_2264" align="alignleft" width="279"] Honest Appalachia founders: Garrett Robinson and Jimmy Tobias[/caption]
Co-founded by Jimmy Tobias and Garrett Robinson, Honest Appalachia began in January of this year and its mission is to inspire whistleblowers from the Appalachian region to share information safely and anonymously. They are in the business of accountability by making sure that whistleblowers, who are devoted to uncovering injustices, corruptions and wrongdoings from corporations and government, can have a voice and one that is heard.
I had the chance to catch up with Jimmy Tobias to learn more about their work.
Kindle Project: Why Appalachia? What is happening in the Appalachians that calls for the need for whistleblowers to come forward?
Jimmy Tobias: It’s the region we knew best. I went to school in West Virginia and our team knew this region well. It’s rural and has a big history with extraction. This project would be helpful in this area. [Honest Appalachia] is a call for whistleblowers to come forward: the region has a history of extraction, and [has the heavy presence of] the coal industry. It’s such a heavily industrialized area. People are more vulnerable there as well. In West Virginia there are only two AP reporters to cover the whole region.
KP: Is it an issue of geography then? Rural areas not being given proper attention by the media, I guess it’s just not glamorous.
JT: Exactly. News media is changing and investigative journalists are losing their jobs. Media is in a strange place and rural areas are not glamorous to cover.
KP: We are very focused on issues of environmental and social justice. Are those the subject on which you’re receiving most of your submissions?
JT: We are a one-industry region in many ways. The coal economy is one of the pillars of our society, and to not have eyes on an industry that is massive and important seems dangerous. Now with hydraulic fracking becoming big it leaves people more vulnerable. The extraction industry, and as well as state and local government is what we’re looking at. There’s so much room for political corruption and collision. Being a watchdog of the government is the media’s traditional role and we’d like to be a part of that.
KP: What are the risks involved in sharing this kind of information? Both for the whistleblower and for you?
JT: The risks depend on the types of documents we get. We’re prepared to deal with local and federal corruption, as we are pretty prudent, and have good legal support. Ultimately, our number one goal is to keep peoples’ identities and First Amendment rights protected. The coal industry has a history of being rough with people who shine too much light on them. I think it’s a different world than it was 50 years ago and law and order still prevails in our country.
KP: What advice do you have for whistleblowers who want to share their info, but are too afraid of the risks?
JT: It really depends on their personal circumstances. Mail is a secure form of information delivery, as long as they keep their personal information off the document. It’s probably more secure online.
KP: Is it a strange experience to have relationships with anonymous sources?
JT: It depends on the type of document [submitted]. Part of what we’re trying to do is be a matchmaker for whistleblowers and appropriate journalists on a case-by-case basis.
KP: Have you had a lot of submissions already?
JT: We’ve had a lot. One interesting submission that the AP in West Virginia is looking at is a story about wasteful spending by the state/government. These are the kinds of stories we’re looking for. We don’t want personal grievances. We’re looking for well-documented issues of public interest.
KP: What has response been like from your local Appalachia community?
JT: There’s been a lot of positive feedback. But, the government of Pennsylvania criticized us one day on the radio. [You can read about this on the Honest Appalachia blog here]. Journalists and the AP in West Virginia have been great and very responsive as well.
KP: What kind of a community, if any, is being created through your site?
JT: We’re hoping we can build relationships with activists and journalists to create a community around online activism and journalism, and we hope that a community will coalesce amongst the site. We believe that such a community can develop via our presentations, and on our Facebook page/ blog.
KP: So, in building this community are you in touch with other media sources as well?
JT: We really want to establish a relationship with journalists. Our closest relationship is with AP, and we also know the people at Democracy Now, though we’re always looking to expand: we’re collecting names and numbers for other potential partners.
KP: Aside from journalists, are you aiming to broaden your community to include any other organizations as well? We’ve recently funded the Government Accountability Project (GAP), and they seem like natural allies for you. Do you have any plans to connect whistleblowers with legal advocates?
JT: Yes, we have some good legal contacts, and we’re familiar with GAP. They wrote about the Honest Appalachia launch and we re-tweet some of their stuff. [In addition, ] the Electronic Frontier Foundation has helped us navigate through some issues. We have some interesting legal contacts as well. We’re tapped in and would feel comfortable reaching out to GAP. Some attorneys have reached out and want to help.
KP: Why is the need for Honest Appalachia’s work important given Wikileaks already exists?
JT: Regional focus is a big piece of our work. Wikileaks focused on the big international issues. They’re also having a lot of troubles right now. If they disappear it would be good to have other sources in place for transparent media.
KP: On your site, you encourage people to start their own Honest X organization. Why should people do this? What is the best way to go about doing so? And how will Honest Appalachia facilitate this process?
JT: One of our major goals is to help these kinds of websites develop by sharing our platform and code, and offering technical help to anyone who wants to start one. We’re encouraging others to take our model and adapt it to make it their own, and we’ve already helped people in Finland and Switzerland to do so. We see ourselves as a part of the computer security, privacy movement.
KP: What kind of funding do you need in order to sustain Honest Appalachia?
JT: Whistleblowers need nothing beyond a secure computer and the courage to take a stand. As we expand, if we can’t get funding, we want to be able to shrink back to a low cost model. This spring we are doing an educational tour, running ads on Facebook and we can do all of this for very little. But, funding allows us to dream big and get paid.
Every person has a voice, and organizations such as Honest Appalachia are making it possible for these voices to be heard. Furthermore, they are allowing these voices to safely expose the often-damaging skeletons that corporations and states are hiding in their closets. This is why we are so committed to the work of Honest Appalachia. They are continuing to pave the way for whistleblowers to carry out their challenging and essential work.
Keep yourselves informed via their blog.

Kindle Project + Capricious Call for Submissions Kindle Project is collaborating with Capricious Magazine on their 13th issue: WATER
We are very excited to announce a new Kindle Project collaboration with Capricious. Capricious Magazine and its related projects provide a platform for the work of emerging and underrepresented fine art photographers who push the boundaries of their medium and bring critical attention to social, political, and environmental topics. Capricious thereby offers vital support needed to help both the artists and the issues to gain greater visibility.
Thirst, living on the water, dependence, in hot water, missing water, water travel, the drought, surfers, marine life, fishermen, romanticism, whale warrior, narwhale, adventure at sea, abuse of water, artesian aquifer, trash-pit, texture, shapeless, tears, bodies, bottled, baptism, boiling, transparency, poetic, polemic, narcissism, steam, clouds, holy water, swimming pool, garden sprinklers, spring break, lost at sea, changing tides, the force of water, icebergs, bi-coastal, beach, play, elemental, floating, environmental justice, climate change, excess and scarcity, Mother Nature’s rights, resource wars, ripples, the deep end, across the pond, steaming mad, raining cats & dogs, acid rain, sea glass, sea monkeys, drip drip drop, dammed up, up a river, down a well, hydroponics, potability, precipitation, waterborne, ground-water reservoir, jet streams, wave crests, cirrus clouds, dilution, reflection, running dry…
The next iteration of Capricious, the WATER issue, will see us diving into one of the most pressing conservation topics of our time. The future of water, and its inextricable link to our planet’s survival, is unquestionably in the hands of our own generation as well as our children’s generations. So how do we see humanity’s relationship with water? How does that relationship appear in the developing world, as well as in the first world? And how do we, as individuals, interact with and think about water? Surprise us. Challenge the norm. Teach us something we don't already know.
Kindle Project LLC and Capricious are joining forces to present The Kindle Project Photography Awards. Three photographers exploring the theme of water in distinguishing ways will be provided with an award of $1000 USD. A selection committee will choose the artists. (Committee members have not yet been announced.)
Since 2008, Kindle Project LLC has supported artists working in traditional, modern, and experimental modes that question, confront, explore, frame or reframe the following: perceptions of identity; worldviews and the collective conscious; individual and social conditioning; relationships between nature, culture, and technology; the consensus of what is beautiful and what is ugly; the institutionalization of who can experience art and how it is experienced; political frameworks and authority; and sensuality.
CAPRICIOUS NO 13
Call for Submissions
Deadline: September 5, 2012
Updated Submission Deadline: September 11, 2012
Submission Instructions:
We want you to submit 6-12 photographs (more will not be viewed). We accept all formats and all colors. Email your submission (images should be approximately 8x10 inches @ 72 dpi) to: submit@capriciousmagazine.com
Not all submissions will be guaranteed a spot in the coming issue, yet Capricious will consider your submission for future issues. Please make sure you have model (or any other legally necessary) releases for all submitted work. Capricious has the right to use published material in promotional matters. Deadline: September 11, 2012. For further questions, email submit@capriciousmagazine.com
www.becapricious.com
www.kindleproject.org

MIX Santa Fe MIX Santa Fe Feature: 10 Micro-stimulus Questions with Zane Fischer
Arianne Shaffer - Kindle Project
Today we’d like to introduce you to Zane Fischer, one of the brains behind MIX Santa Fe and one of our newest grantees. MIX is paving the way for local entrepreneurs, organizations, and individuals to collaborate in truly innovative ways. They have become the creative nexus point, both on and offline, for Santa Fe business-minded individuals and start-ups. One can get a real sense of both the people involved in MIX and its initiatives by watching this video:
[embed]http://vimeo.com/36609954[/embed]
In this small city of Santa Fe, the MIX social mission alone is an ambitious one. Touted more for its art, natural landscapes and plethora of yogis and healers, Santa Fe has not had a great rep as a social hub or for having a thriving nightlife, especially for young people.
MIX is changing all of that.
A couple weeks ago, the entire Kindle Project team was in Santa Fe, (a rare occurrence for us), and we were thrilled to attend one of MIX’s now popular social events. This particular MIX, “Royally MIXed”, had an extra special purpose—to be a pitching hub for the 11 finalists from the BizMIX competition that was launched this spring.
Upon arrival, all local guests were asked to fill out a survey of their spending habits, how they’d like to spend their money in support of local businesses/groups, and what they feel is missing in Santa Fe. Part of MIX’s mission, particularly with their business competition, is to help revitalize and shift the local economy and their game-ification of this process brings a certain buoyant spirit to entire event. After filling out my survey I was offered a drink ticket and a sticker that read “Pitch Me”, which would act as invitation for BixMIX finalists to approach me with their idea in hopes winning my vote at the end of the night.
Amongst the over 500 attendees (a record for MIX!), I mingled with guests as I nursed a watermelon margarita and listened to details about the projects being worked on. I got a real sense that MIX is, in fact, accomplishing their very ambitious goals.
[portfolio_slideshow]
Perpetually excited by interpretations and actions of microphilanthropy and small awards with sustainable impacts, we are keeping a watchful eye on how MIX and their BizMIX program will carry on in the coming weeks. Zane took the time to explain some of the behind-the-scenes thinking of MIX to us and how what they’re doing is not only something that can be replicated in other cities but an essential contribution to shifting economies and building communities.
This is an important read for any start-up organization looking to contribute to their community and their local economy in ways that add value and creativity.
A big thank you to Zane and MIX! Keep in touch with BizMIX’s results via our Facebook page and theirs.
Kindle Project: Why are micro-stimulus grants important?
Zane Fischer: The current economic landscape is positively Dr. Seuss-ian in terms of navigability for most ventures and projects getting off the ground. On the one hand you have multi-national corporations benefitting from subsidies, favorable tax structures and unprecedented lobbying access, and using that power to narrow the paths to small and independent innovation and success. On the other hand, you have the fantasy of being the next Instagram or overnight Kickstarter funding or a venture capitalist deciding to be your guardian angel investor. Rather than being confounded by barriers or dreaming of easy wealth, a lot of talented and motivated people just need someone to demonstrate some belief in their idea and their abilities. A small push toward freedom to develop some additional capacity—something to get them up to the next rung, both mentally and financially—can make all the difference in early and bridge stages of a project.
KP: How do you see them as being beneficial for a small community like Santa Fe?
ZF: The benefits are tangible for every line that passes through the micro-stimulus nexus. Projects that are supported not only receive money, but they receive it from within the community, which brings a kind of stewardship with it—a desire on the part of sponsoring businesses and community organizations to help pool resources and offer mentorship toward success and a desire to on the part of recipients to do the best they can with the resources they've been entrusted with. People who step forward to help sponsor our micro-stimulus initiatives not only increase their own visibility within the community, but gain access to a vibrant talent and idea pool that might not otherwise be visible to them. The City of Santa Fe economic development department sees a remarkable leveraging of their funding in the form of private matches and the cultivation of a soil ripe for creative entrepreneurialism. The MIX constituency and the city as a whole get the satisfaction of translating frustrations and challenges, identified through crowd-sourcing, into imaginative solutions, some of which will grow into successful businesses and organizations.
KP: Are there any other ways in which small business ideas and start-ups can get funding like this in Santa Fe?
ZF: Certainly. The city's economic development department works hard to be accessible, to connect people with resources and, in some cases to help financially with ventures that offer significant potential for workforce development and increasing high-wage jobs. New Mexico in general also has a surprisingly vibrant ecosystem of venture capitalists, angel investors, peer groups and business development resources, but the street level collection of niche opportunities and the fast response, quick funding and game-ification of the process is something that only MIX is doing locally, as far as I know.
KP: Can MIX’s model be easily replicated in other cities and communities?
ZF: Absolutely. And it's a priority of ours to have a better mechanism for delivering information in response to the many inquiries that we receive from other cities. We've also paid attention to a lot of compelling programs being created around the world. Personally, I think there are two key strengths at the core of what MIX excels at. The first is to adopt an ethos of doing something—don't overthink it, don't perfect it, just get something off the ground. The second is to take a cue from the Poet Rainer Maria Rilke and “resolve to always be changing.” Evolving our methodology and priorities in response to the needs identified by our constituency has been a really important part of staying relevant. Every community is a little different, but taking action and then adjusting course by really listening the response to that action is something that I think is going to be universally effective.
KP: Are there any examples of micro-stimulus grants in others cities that have inspired MIX’s approach?
ZF: There are really too many great projects to list. The whole micro-financing movement has been pretty inspiring. There are huge problems, whether you're talking about relationship-based banking, funding cottage industries in impoverished and disempowered regions, or crowd-funding online, but even with the challenges, it's a disruptive movement that opens a lot of possibility, that is establishing a financing framework that makes sense for the 99 percent, and that holds the potential for investment to gravitate away from abstract, centralized systems like national stock exchanges and back toward a more localized structure.
KP: What advice do you have for community groups that are interested in starting their own micro-stimulus projects?
ZF: Take “micro” seriously and start small. The first time you pass a hat or crowd-fund or approach sponsors or funders, you're probably not going to have a lot of credibility. The first “stimulus” checks that we delivered were fifty dollars or so. A couple of years later, we're giving away $10,000...but we had to earn some credibility. If people see strong results with a small amount of money, they're compelled by what you might achieve with more. To do that, you've got to listen and respond. There's a perception that effective programs that attain broad engagement are built from the top down by “experts in the field” but it's really audience, it's really constituency, that tells you how they want to be engaged. Listen to where people want to see change—collect hard data on it, in fact—and then find a way to put game theory into play in terms of drawing out people who will take charge of manifesting that change. Look for ways to have a good time during the process of shifting challenge toward opportunity and frustration toward action.
KP: With BizMix, how do you decide which projects will make it to the second round?
ZF: Our business plan competition had 75 entries and, in a city the size of Santa Fe, we feel proud of that. Thousands of people took a look at the application and we know it takes a real commitment to fill out the entry form and articulate a vision. So, it was really difficult. We used a group comprised of MIX coordinators and professionals in business, economic development and exactly these kinds of competitions to select 11 finalists. Every application was gone over multiple times and it was a real challenge for that body to whittle down the finalists. A panel of local entrepreneurs and professionals—none of whom are associated with MIX operations—will choose the winner or winners. Applicants who didn't go on to the final round in this case, will be among the first to know about any additional opportunities MIX is able to bring to the table. There's a real sense of responsibility toward supporting everyone who has participated.
KP: What is your hope for the people involved in the mentorship program?
ZF: All of the BizMIX finalists will experience a mentor night where they'll be able to meet a spectrum of established professionals who have skills germane to getting a business off the ground. Whether a particular finalists need is constructing a cash flow or designing a marketing plan, we'll have someone there to round out that aspect of a final business plan entry. The goal is not only to up everyone's game but give tangible support to all of the finalists, so that even if they don't hit grand prize territory, we give them a valuable take-away.
KP: As start-up businesses are on the rise, what do you think larger cities can do to help encourage and facilitate this?
ZF: Population density has its built-in advantages. So, honestly, we're more interested in how smaller and mid-sized cities can translate quality of life and, hopefully, a nimble policy-making body into vibrant, talent-rich communities. We know what a New York, New York can do and we even know what a Portland, Oregon can achieve, but what about a Buffalo, New York or a Santa Fe, New Mexico or…? The current influx of population into large city centers has a corresponding (if less statistically noticeable) exodus of talented individuals looking for a more intimate experience and a more tractable sense of community. Often it's about understanding the environment beyond the municipal lines. We could spend all day worrying about Santa Fe alone, or we can take the watershed concept and apply it to a “talent shed.” In our case, Taos, Española, Los Alamos, Rio Rancho, Albuquerque, etc—how do we leverage that entire ecosystem and the different attributes within it to strengthen all of the different components?
KP: MIX seems to operate its micro-stimulus grants in similar ways that the Awesome Foundation does. I know you don’t get your funding from individual trustees, but from other sources. Would MIX ever consider crowd-sourcing their funding from the community?
ZF: We're big fans of the Awesome Foundation at MIX and have considered having MIX represent a Santa Fe chapter. We have an event slated for later this year that will be all about crowd-funding, a MIXstarter if you will. As I mentioned previously, we'd love to move toward a local investment mechanism; a local exchange where people can invest in small businesses operating on the ground in and around Santa Fe. We think the time is right as some recent changes to federal law are helping to make micro-investing more feasible. There's also a lot of disillusionment with traditional investment mechanisms right now, making it a good time to give people who are skittish of investing in the stock market an opportunity to make solid investments locally.
[caption id="attachment_2235" align="alignleft" width="171"] Zane Fischer[/caption]
To read more about Zane Fischer check out his bio on the Kindle Project website. He's also a member of our Steering Committee.
http://mixsantafe.com/

Announcement of Spring 2012 Grantees! Kindle Project Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation welcomes our new and returning Spring grantees. With work that stretches across a broad range of awesomeness from government and corporate accountability, youth inspired movement building, whistleblower advocacy, seed saving, and music collectives, it's a productive and inspiring time for our grantee community. Below you'll find an introduction to each of our current grantees. We encourage you to visit their websites, support their projects, and continue to stay informed by checking back here and liking our Facebook page.

Kindle Project Interviews Dynasty Handbag (a.k.a Jibz Cameron) Preparing to go and have lunch with Jibz Cameron, whose alter ego Dynasty Handbag is a 2011 Kindle Project awardee, is a bit like prepping to meet the best friend you’ve always wanted to have. Not in the Julia Roberts way, but more in the way that I knew that having lunch with Jibz would feel like having lunch with an old friend – one who leaves me less with the familiar sense of nostalgia but with renewed sense of inspiration and jittery excitement I hope to get from a budding professional partnership.
My lunch date is not your average artist. Ok, is there is even such a thing as an average artist? Perhaps it’s better to say she’s one of the most unique, comical performers we’ve ever had the chance to encounter. Her work is unabashedly bizarre and deeply funny, with hints of emotional depth that leave you ruminating in your own reflections days after you’ve experienced her work.
Jibz had me meet her at a place called DINER in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. From the outside it looked like an old barn or shed, and the inside felt like an old boat, the perfect setting for a Canadian girl like me to bask in the glamorous glow of the NY artist. The thing is, Jibz is disarming, grounded and laugh-out-loud hilarious without even a pinch of pretension. Her glamour resides in her earnestness, which makes her delightfully easy to speak with. After we shared a perfectly locavore meal in the DINER/boat we chatted outside in the New York sun about her new work, Eternal Quadrangle, what’s next for her, and the movable intricacies of her artistic process.
Eternal Quadrangle premieres at The New Museum in New York City tomorrow, May 18, 2012.
Kindle Project: Ok, tell me about your new piece. It has a great name! Eternal Quadrangle!
Jibz Cameron: Dynasty Handbag goes on a dating game show and the contestants are a disembodied brain, a stray dog, a professional golfer and the grim reaper.
KP: Are they all played by puppets?
JC: No, they’re animated creatures and I do all the voices. I ask them all questions and they use the trope of the dating game show where there are exchanges like, “Bachelor number 4: look at bachelor number 2 and tell me, if he were a kind of animal what would he be?” You know, that kind of stuff…but mostly the ideas behind it are about when I get locked into thinking there’s a certain way to think or act that’s a solution to whatever problem I’m having instead of being really open. I found that when I was going through a lot of stuff last year I kept thinking you need to deal with it in this way which would be the representation of the golfer who is all ambition and focus and success and I don’t have any of those desires [giggles]. Or like being really fatalistic–we’re all going to die anyways so who gives a shit what happens. Or the dog is self-pity, just wallowing and wallowing. And the brain is just…it’s like on speed, it’s not on speed…
KP: The brain is where speed was born?
JC: Ya, it wears running shoes. The brain [character] is more trying to figure things out – trying to attack everything, you know all [she makes many funny mumbled sounds]. The whole thing with the dating game is about the relationship with the self. It’s very weird that we lock ourselves into small ways of thinking and compartmentalizing. And on a larger scale I think compartmentalizing is really bad news for everything.
KP: Well, it disconnects you from everything you’re experiencing when you choose to only experience or view something from one of those little identities.
JC: And it’s also just sort of universally kind of fucked up. We want to identify things and label them and make sure we’re in control of what they are. And have them be tidy. I guess that’s sort of the impetus of how this one [project] came about. I can’t tell you the trajectory of where theses ideas were invented.
[embed]http://vimeo.com/8267984[/embed]
KP: What’s so interesting hearing you talk about it having seen other Dynasty Handbag videos is that you describe it so articulately and with so much emotion and it’s so clear. If you were describing this to me without me knowing your work I’d be like, oh yes, I’m about to experience something I can totally relate to and tap into, but the whole visual and the character of Dynasty Handbag is absurd in so many ways!
JC: Ya, it is absurd. I also just like comedy so I try and make things funny.
KP: She’s super funny. The first time I saw your videos I was completely entranced and quite uncomfortable all at the same time, which is what I love about it. And then you get to know DH a little more – less uncomfortable and you can kind of find you way in to relate to it. That was my experience of it, but I remember watching it for the first time and I couldn’t take my eyes off this thinking you have this magical courage about you to take these understandings of yourself and present them in these entirely comedic, colorful, absurd and unusual ways. That’s my experience.
JC: Hmmm, that’s cool! That’s a pretty good goal I think.
KP: One of the notes I wrote this morning was that you have so much courage [she winces] You know…not in this pedestal queen of Williamsburg way, but it takes a combination of courage and grace to make comedy absurd and meaningful at the same time. It’s hard to do.
JC: The comedy part of it makes it accessible. It’s a safe place for me to go to explore these things. If I didn’t have that padding I don’t know if I’d be able to go into it. It makes it accessible for other people too.
KP: What about courage?
JC: Seems a little distant. But, I guess I do work on things in my life that aren’t directly related to my art practice that I do feel takes a lot of courage and that informs what I do in my art practice. I don’t sit down and think…I’m gonna go really deep today. The stuff just comes and then I realize it’s coming because of something I need to look at. Or sometimes the story will tell itself to me after the fact; oh that’s why that guy needed to be in this thing – of course?!It also doesn’t really matter what it means to anyone else. It’s so subjective. It doesn’t really matter what I means to anyone else. But if it’s sitting with you, fine.
KP: But, you keep making stuff for people to enjoy, interact with and consume in some way.
JC: Yes
KP: So it must mean that people are responding in some way.
JC: Ya, I feel like I get a lot of good response. But, I also feel that I care less and less about that.
KP: What does a good response look like for you?
JC: You know, people throwing money at me. People killing themselves because I can’t always respond to them as my fans.
[We both laugh a lot…]
JC: I get really high off performing and when people come up to me after saying “You’re so great, so inspiring, I laughed so hard” I love it when people tell me how hard they laughed. That’s the best. Or when people tell me they’re inspired…For me the thrill is really in the moment. I definitely feel if I can’t captivate an audience I feel very bummed out.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wgrCn3R5JyI[/embed]
KP: Is this performance art?
JC: I guess so.
KP: I lived in Quebec for a long time and Quebec is really obsessed with performance art, which is really funny to me cause it’s this label, this term that I never really understood.
JC: I don’t get it. When people ask me what I do I usually say I’m a performer cause that’s what I do. I also act in other people’s work. Ya, it’s performance art. One time a show I made was billed as “is this performative comedy or comedic performance?’ As a joke…It was a commentary. It is funny but I don’t think of myself as a comedian at all. I think of myself as a performer.
KP: Comedy is such a weirdly specific genre.
JC: But it’s so much like that thing of compartmentalization. Look at someone like Andy Kaufman who said he wasn’t a comedian. And he wasn’t. But, he performed not plays, but things in a theatrical setting. All the trappings of it make it really confusing for people. People ask me, ‘what kind of plays do you perform in?’ And the answer can go all over the place.
KP: I have one more question about the dating game– I was thinking about the dating show idea because maybe I’ve been on the Internet dating sites once or twice.
JC: Maybe…
KP: Maybe, or maybe not…this interview is not about me! But it is [your piece] about longing. [With Internet dating] you’re longing to connect with someone, or fuck someone of whatever it is you’re looking for on the Internet. But you have to make yourself fit into a certain box, sometimes quite literally you have to type your shit into these fucking boxes and then try and to attract the right fly to your strip basically.
[We both said, “Eww” and laughed out loud for a few good moments.]
KP: The whole notion completely freaks me out, but there is tremendous pressure in the dating world to make yourself into one thing for one person, and another for another person. I could see myself making four different profiles based on your four different suitors. It really struck me that we’re desperate to relate in one way, but we’re not one thing. Maybe this is the evident piece of your new work but we need a combination of these four archetypes to be in one person.
JC: Now you’re writing my ending that I never got – shit…
KP: Sorry…
JC: It doesn’t end neatly. Now you’ve given me a better ending!!
KP: What the ending?
JC: I can’t tell you! Wait…it does kind of end that way. Ok. I’m good. I got it.
I watched her brain work and ramble for a few minutes and couldn’t quite follow – but it seemed she was having an important revelation. Thank you Ok Cupid. We finished chatting in the sun and I left the conversation wishing I would be in New York to see the premiere of Eternal Quadrangle and to witness Dynasty Handbag in action would be only further confirmation of her uniqueness. It’s a small triumph for Kindle Project to know Jibz and to have the opportunity to collaborate with her. In a world full of absurdity, we can all use more creativity like Jibz’s to get us through.
Be sure to look out for Jibz's performance in Stratford, England as Cassandra in the Wooster Group's production of Torilus and Cressida.
www.dynastyhandbag.com

Occupy and Philanthropy Occupy and Philanthropy: Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men and Farhad Ebrahimi of the Chorus Foundation Weigh in
Delving into the role money plays in the Occupy movement and, more specifically, uncovering what role philanthropists have in Occupy’s grand scheme was something I knew would require careful thought. In wanting to dissect some questions and to better understand the intersections between philanthropy and the Occupy movement it was a natural choice for us to approach Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men and Farhad Ebrahimi of the Chorus Foundation.
[caption id="attachment_2043" align="alignleft" width="254"] Farhad Ebrahimi is a philanthropist, activist, musician, lover of film and literature, supporter of science, hipster, and bicycle snob who lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Farhad comes from a background of unambiguous financial privilege, and he believes that responding to that privilege in an equitable and just manner is going to be a significant part of his life's work. He's especially passionate about issues of climate, energy, and environmental health, which he approaches primarily through his role as the founder and trustee chair of the Chorus Foundation, a domestic funder based in Boston. As a member of the 1% who stands with the 99%, he's also been heavily involved in Occupy Boston since the first tent was pitched in Dewey Square. Farhad graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics with Computer Science.[/caption]
Mike is one half of the Yes Men, a notoriously mischievous pair that crafts brilliant hoaxes often involving impersonation of leaders of big corporations who prioritize profits over all else. You may have heard of their films, The Yes Men (2003) and The Yes Men fix the World (2009), in which audiences get to be inside the heads of these two comedic, culture-jamming activists as they craftily sneak their way into mainstream media to expose the truths behind mega corporations. Most notably, perhaps, was Andy Bichlbaum’s (the other half of the Yes Men duo) appearance on BBC World in December of 2004 where he posed as a Dow Chemical spokesman announcing that the company was finally taking responsibility for the Bhopal disaster. This hoax led to wide media coverage not only for the Yes Men but also for issues they were trying to address.
As committed fans of smart humor and creative activism, it has been an entertaining and motivating experience to have the Yes Men project, Yes Lab as a Kindle Project grantee. The Yes Lab is the fertile training ground for the Yes Men to share the tactics, ideas, thinking, strategizing and thoughtful mayhem-making with other activists groups who are looking for new ways of engaging in direct action. Since the beginning of Occupy Wall Street the Yes Lab’s have been getting actions off the ground.
When Occupy Wall Street began last year our team spent a lot of time in conversation about it. As per our usual Kindle Project style, we generated a lot of questions. We wondered what the outcome of these occupations would be, if it was appropriate to even expect or anticipate “outcomes,” and how the world of philanthropy might fit into it. We knew that foundations and individuals were compelled to put money into Occupy and we had a lot of questions about how that all might work, and how it was going to work in the long run. We questioned language, tone, actions, and efficacies as we wondered if foundations who were interested in supporting Occupy, could be welcomed into the movement or if that would be perceived as antithetical to its goals.
To understand this issue it was important to first ask: “Does Occupy need money?” I had heard from one Occupy activist in NYC that it was best for philanthropists to stay away from funding Occupy directly. It was more important for them to fund the groups and grassroots organizations whose work aligned with the Occupy spirit. Farhad had a similar opinion: that Occupy could use money to support logistical needs but that where funders could really support the movement as a whole was by making connections in a non-transactional way with Occupiers. “I think people on the funding side and the field side need to just keep talking to each other. Trust and knowing will bring the transaction. It will help to shift the power dynamic: Folks looking for funding can look for comrades–that’s the ideal. Share what you’re doing and don’t think that just because they’re not funding you for one cycle they aren’t interested in what you’re doing.” What Farhad was addressing, earnestly, was the need for relational support and connection as opposed to merely transaction support.
Since we operate on similar values at Kindle Project, what Farhad said really resonated. However, Mike had a slightly different slant of how the relationship between philanthropy and Occupy had been developing. He, like Farhad, was witnessing and experiencing the importance of relationship building within the movement but also noted that: “OWS is sidestepping this [traditional asking for funding] dynamic–they are not trying to appeal to funders, they have no demands, but because it’s a groundswell they were able to get a lot of money and even more pizza right away. They’ve created a place that brings all the organizations together that have been fractured – what’s weird about the non-profit sector is that they’re competing for funds.”
(Video above courtesy of the Yes Lab site. The action with Makana in Hawaii at the APEC World Leaders dinner was what Mike described as one of the serendipitous moments of creative action as a part of OWS.)
[caption id="attachment_2044" align="alignleft" width="238"] Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men[/caption]
Both Farhad and Mike shared accounts of the early days of Occupy, in Boston and NYC respectively, and how each was involved. For Farhad, the early days were filled with inquisitiveness, and the desire to help out and be of service in the “media bull pen” as a representative of the 1%. Mike explained that the Yes Labs arrived on the scene early as well: “Around the beginning of the occupation we stared to participate in some affinity groups that were doing good natured actions that seemed like fun.” He explained that these actions could be another story about what was going on downtown, one that wasn’t centered around protesters being pepper sprayed. They both discussed the fact that being involved also meant working with logistics: establishing kitchens, cleaning the areas, organizing shelter, and obtaining food. Setting up the logistical structure for a movement like this comes with a real sense of urgency, and what was evident in speaking with both of our interviewees was that conceptual goals for the movement were quickly fused with the immediate needs of the Occupiers. This added another complex layer to where money, funding, and donations fit into the picture.
Farhad explained the particulars of what it meant to be a part of Occupy Boston every day for a couple months. Knowing the ins and outs of all the logistics, the big goals, the small triumphs, and all the dynamics in between and also where money fits into this big picture. Farhad explained that money could be and was used for basic needs, but that when people were evicted from the Boston camp things became very contentious. There was an interest in the community to support these people, but questions remained regarding the process of funding. How to go about giving somebody money, and how to decide who could become a member. Questions like these poured forth from the NYC Occupy camps as well complicated queries about decision making for a group that was lacking—and championing their lack of—central leadership, and whose General Assembly was still struggling with structure. From here questions were raised regarding what to do with the money that came into Occupy, whether it was necessary, and how it could be used. A key question came out of these experiences and continues to be relevant today. How can the old but persistent funder/recipient power dynamic be mitigated in this setting?
[caption id="attachment_2046" align="alignleft" width="525"] Source: Globalpost.com, Photographer: Jordan Helton[/caption]
The potential problems are clear. When approaching funders to support an organization or project, hopeful applicants often tailor their words to promote their mission in a way that they think would best appeal to funders. Doing so, however, causes the application to lose a measure of authenticity, and in turn both parties lose out. Both funder and recipients lose the opportunity to form partnerships, and for funders to know the work they support in detail. If the relationship, as opposed to the financial transaction, is made top priority, then this funder/recipient playing field has a greater chance of being leveled out. The newly formed group, Occupy Philanthropy, though still in its developmental stages, is tackling some of these harder questions about how a community of funders can best support and relate to the Occupy movement. As Farhad points out, Occupy Philanthropy is still forming and it might take some time for this group of funders to delve more deeply into the radical funding that may be required as the Occupy movement continues to shift and change.
[caption id="attachment_2047" align="alignleft" width="600"] Yes Men, Andy and Mike dressed as 'brokers' at OWS in October 2011 (Source: http://yeslab.org/brokersandpolice)[/caption]
For Kindle, being on the periphery of the Occupy Philanthropy group (participating in the listserv, conference calls etc.), it has been interesting to feel like we’re a part of a group of people who are engaging with creative thinking around money and “the movement.” For Mike, “the Occupy Philanthropy group is a good place [for funders] to start–concentrating on funding and targeting where they could apply some lubrication to the movement.” Each funder, then, needs to align their funding to what matters most to them, and I think Occupy Philanthropy is trying to address and tackle some of these answers.
Just as Farhad urges those in search of grants to find comrades in funders, he too makes a call-out to funders to “walk the talk.” He speaks about the frequent trend in blind investments many foundations engage in: “Most foundations only give 5-10% of what they have every year – the rest is invested, and not often in investments that correlate with the mission [of the foundation].” He goes on to explain: “This is how you end up with foundations that spend money trying to shut down coal plants, but who have their funds invested in trying to set up new ones.” Farhad reminds us, the funders, to invest and act with thoughtfulness, which will ultimately be the foundation of a new economy.
With Mike’s trademark Yes Labs humor, buoyancy, and creative direct actions and Farhad’s transparent, earnest, and committed dedication, it’s no wonder that this movement is still going, shifting, shaping, and questioning. Where money and philanthropy fit in is quite clear after talking to these two – funders need to get more transparent and more risky in their funding – but they can’t do that without fostering real relationships with the people and organizations they wish to fund. According to both Mike and Farhad, funding Occupy directly will be less and less useful and it is up to funders to make commitments to the organizations who are working at the grassroots level to help the shifting and growing momentum that Occupy ignited.
(Source for photo of Farhad: Lindsay Metivier)

Academics, activism and the spaces in between An interview with United Roots’ Simmy Makhijani
Kindle Project has had a long relationship with Oakland’s United Roots: an organization that engages Oakland, California’s marginalized youth with media, arts, career training, and wellness services. We have watched this organization change and grow over the years and are perpetually motivated and impressed by their mission and commitment to their community. So much of what United Roots does is based in personal storytelling; using media, music, and movement to express a personal narrative. United Roots leaders engage in these forms, always practicing what they preach, modeling the impact of these tools for the youth they work with. Last year we featured the story of Galen Paterson, United Roots’ Co-Executive Director, and this year we’re sharing Co-Executive Director Simmy Makhijani’s story. Galen and Simmy’s personal histories weave together the complex and deeply passionate stories of the greater Oakland community. It is personal stories such as these that allow us to not only learn more about the leaders of the organizations that we support, but to understand the reasons why they do the work they do with such fervor. Over the coming months, we’ll be exploring more stories of the people behind the projects we fund.
[caption id="attachment_2028" align="alignleft" width="150"] Simmy Makhijani[/caption]
Simmy is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of United Roots, and is also currently completing her PhD in the Social and Cultural Anthropology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
In speaking with Simmy, I received an elaborate and well-illustrated account of Oakland’s rich history and why it is what it is today. Through her broad knowledge of the layered history of Oakland and its movements for civil rights, justice, and racial and economic equality, Simmy uncovers the current context of the area’s diverse and often adversarial neighborhoods. Simmy shared some troubling statistics with me: “The moment we’re in now in Oakland (is one) where one person is killed every four days, 9 out of 10 male, 8 out of 10 African-American, 8 out of 10 shot by some kind of firearm, 3 out of 4 killed on a public street, and 30% of those killed are young adults between ages 18-25.” (See urbanstrategies.org for Homicides in Oakland Report.)
Oakland, California has a special almost frenetic energy to it, not only because of its staggering crime rates, but also because of its rich cultural, artistic, and activist presence. Knowing the kinds of adversities that the young people are facing there, and that the mission of United Roots is to help them express themselves, it’s no wonder that Simmy is moving her work towards a more central focus on healing. “Many frontline activists skilled at violence mediation have retreated; youth leaders such as those of our Turf Unity project are pulling back right now,” she said, “having lost many of their peers in the process of conflict resolution efforts. In this time of retreat, prayer circles and meditation groups are forming, and different moments of self-reflection are emerging naturally.”
In speaking with Simmy, her academic prowess was evident, yet, the ways in which she combines her PhD, her activism and her role as Co-Executive of Director of United Roots, are clear responses to her holistic understanding of what this community needs. The situation is so dangerous there that even the frontline activists are pulling out, and to Simmy, this points clearly to the sign that deeper levels of involvement must begin to take shape.
I asked her about her current academic focus and how it intersects with her activism, and she replied:
"So, returning to my PhD this semester has been about using the resources of the Academy, the privilege of having had this education, for the purpose of looking at how practices of social liberation and spiritual liberation have together created Movement, whether it be the Civil Rights or Black Power movements, Zapatista, or anti-colonial, landless unorganized labor movements of India.
Even more, what I’m interested in is how these intersections relate to the young people that come through the doors of United Roots. What would happen if we were able to provide, alongside our mainstay of programs in the media arts, a developed curriculum that offers context of these rich, powerful histories and practices? What would be possible if the youth themselves, with such context, were able to draw from, perhaps even reinvent their own understanding of mindfulness, using the arts as a means for relating to their everyday experiences and for experimenting with ideas of social revolution in the present? What kind of healing could emerge? What kind of creativity? What other possibilities for change? What might the streets of Oakland look like then?"
While Simmy is in the process of asking these questions and beginning to plan how these will be answered in the United Roots context, it is clear that this community is ready for this kind of inward learning as a part of the much-needed healing process.
Spiritual activism is a necessary bridge to what is taking place on the streets in Oakland—people are trying to find ways to heal, and a large part of the work of United Roots is to help bridge that gap between crisis and healing. From my conversations with Simmy and Galen and when visiting the studios myself last year, it’s clear how media, music production and creative community have a very serious and impactful role in the healing process of this community.
When a crisis like a shooting takes place in Oakland, United Roots focuses their efforts on bringing young people into their space and into the studio as soon as possible. This is one of their most marked accomplishments—using media and the arts as a direct tool to deal with trauma. By engaging youth in the creative process during a time of trauma, they are offering not only a tangible avenue for healing, but also the means with which to communicate positive messages from and about their community in an otherwise volatile context. A quick browse on the United Roots website gives great insight into these accomplishments and their sustainable effects on the young people who are lucky enough to have found United Roots as a safe place.
“We don’t know what the fate of UR will be”, Simmy commented. “Crises on the streets as the older conflict resolution methods aren’t working, foundations are shutting down, but at the same time things are opening up, we’re gaining a larger public stage and there’s a responsibility for any of us doing this work. It’s time to step up, learn from our history so that we can be a part of building that future.” Simmy’s words echo the honest sentiment of United Roots itself. Steeped in committed optimism with an innate knowing of the micro and macro changes needed to make Oakland a safe and nourishing place to live.
Simmy provided the links below for further information about some of the issues discussed above:
Siddha Yoga Prison Project
Catalyst Project
Spirit in Action (pilot launched in San francisco before it went nationwide)
Training for Change
Highlander Research and Education Center

Notes on Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1 Notes on Nuclear Savage: the unexpected success of a documentary
There are many different ways to gauge the success of a documentary. We’ve seen success in the form of direct action, awareness building, and a film’s use a tool for policy change. For the most part, the success of a documentary is measured by how many festivals take it, how many screenings it has, where it has its premiere, how many jury and audience awards it receives, and how and where it is distributed.
In the case of Adam Horowitz’s recent film, which Kindle Project helped to fund, the scope of success reaches much further. Though Adam is proud and excited about the accolades he’s received recently for Nuclear Savage: the Islands of Secret Project 4.1, he explains that his greatest success lies far outside the glamorous festival circuit.
Nuclear Savage is a heartbreaking and intimate ethnographic portrait of Pacific Islanders struggling for dignity and survival after of decades of intentional radiation poisoning at the hands of the American government. Relying on recently declassified U.S. government documents and devastating survivor testimony, this true, untold detective story reveals how U.S. scientists turned a Pacific paradise into a radioactive hell, using Marshall Islanders as human guinea pigs for three decades in order to study the effects of nuclear fallout on human beings. Nuclear Savage is a shocking tale that pierces the heart of our democratic principles. (Source: http://www.nuclearsavage.com).
Heartbreaking is the most poignant word that could be used to describe this film, and in my conversations with Adam this word has been uttered more than once. I’ve often wondered how he has the stamina for this subject matter; the stamina to expose himself to worst kinds of atrocities that humans inflict on one another. The people of the Marshall Islands have faced similar catastrophic fates as the victims who underwent Nazi medical tests during WWII. Adam was there to tell the world about it. These days, his perseverance comes from the success of the film - not just from the attention it’s getting from the international circuit, but from what’s happening in the Islands themselves.
When I asked Adam if the film was being screened in the South Pacific, he said: “They’ve been showing it every day on television for months. They showed it at the Pacific Island conference of Presidents - now they’re broadcasting the film in several Pacific Island Nations - showing in the Federated States of Micronesia, (which includes Chuuk, which used to be Truk), and also in Republic of Palau, which has history of anti nuclear peace movement.” For him, this is his greatest success. The film is being copied and bootlegged all over the region, and even being screened on television with the watermark print of it being a preview copy. No matter to Adam, his film was made for the islanders and it is from there that the possibility of political change is most possible.
So often, the purpose of a socially conscious documentary is to affect change, and we’ve spoken about this a number of times in the past on our blog. Where the nuance lies in Adam’s project is that even though festival audiences are responding very well to the film - being engaged, asking questions and wanting to know what they can do - the reality, as Adam explains, is that there is very little for us to do from here. “The US government is like a dragon and we’re all just little ants…it’s such a gigantic force. I think people are asking all over the world what we can do. When the American drones blow up our village, what can we do? I think just the education and awareness by itself is useful to shatter this myth of America as being the knight on the white horse, always doing the right thing. Trying to get the US to take responsibility is a gigantic mission.”
The feeling of hopelessness when watching a film such as Nuclear Savage can be momentarily overwhelming: it’s nearly impossible to understand this degree of atrocity. Seeing the physical manifestations of these medical tests; babies born grossly deformed, cancer-ravaged families and environmental disaster to name a few. The film screened at IDFA this past year and Adam and I shared a cynical laugh about the climate of the films there: IDFA is colloquially known as the most depressing of all doc festivals because there you can see a handful of films on any given day that expose massive atrocities taking place around the globe. This is all the more reason why Adam is focusing his success on the bootlegged versions of his film that are making the rounds on the Islands, and more importantly, that this film is making these rounds at the perfect time.
The U.S. government is pushing the Marshall Islanders to move back to the contaminated island. When I asked why, Adam explained that if the islanders do move back to the currently radioactive island, the government can close the book on this issue and sweep any responsibility for the contamination and experiments under the rug. “This film coming out there gave them a big life boat in their fight to not repatriate.”
For Adam, this film is just what the islanders needed to convince US officials that what the US is trying to do is reprehensible and criminal. He has not been back to the islands since the release of the film, as the film now acts as its own advocate, and its effects do not rely on his presence. Meanwhile, audiences outside of the islands do need Adam present to help explain why and how truths like these have been allowed to be buried for so long. The truths that Adam’s film exposes are too painful for most of us: not knowing is easier than knowing, and this is what makes getting the film out there a challenge.
In my conversation with Adam it was clear that for audiences in North America and Europe that have seen the film there is an increasing interest in awareness building around hidden issues such as these. He also explained that while Canadian and European festivals have taken the most serious interest in the project, it remains a difficulty to get the film screened in the U.S.
[caption id="attachment_2025" align="alignleft" width="259"] Adam Jonas Horowitz[/caption]
Adam is based out of New Mexico, also the home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a seemingly natural context for this film to screen. Not the case. Adam explained that, “this state gets a huge part of its income from nuclear business…They could show (the film) for free because PBS funded it. PBS is funded by military industrial contractors, and subcontractors of nuclear labs – they know where their bread and butter comes from.” The film was funded in part by the branch of PBS that focuses its programming on ‘diverse’ content. But, as Adam went on the explain, “it’s not public TV. It’s military industrial television. They aren’t going to piss off their funders by showing this film.” This is part of the complex nature of a project like Adam’s and awareness in the U.S. and abroad will satisfy his hopes for the film. The true success of this film lies in potential of changing the political atmosphere in the Marshall Islands which is possible because the region is so small. We will continue to keep you informed of any updates on the success of Nuclear Savage and how it is affecting change in the lives of the islanders who need that support the most.
Upcoming screenings of Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1
• April 17, 2012 - Cinema Planeta Film Festival in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Adam will be in attendance at this screening.
http://www.cinemaplaneta.org/
• April 25, 26, 2012 - FFEM: Montreal Film Festival on the Environment, Montreal, Canada. Adam will be in attendance at these screenings.
http://www.cinemaduparc.com/english/prochainemente.php?id=ffem#nuclear
• Spring 2012, date to be confirmed - Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe
http://www.ccasantafe.org/cinematheque/coming-soon
• May 4-13, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada
http://www.doxafestival.ca/

How to Start a Seed Bank Close to our Seed Theme – Paul Massey’s How to Start a Seed Bank
From the past several weeks of focus on seeds, one lesson is clear: in order to combat the rapid control and very concerning prominence of corporate agriculture businesses we must find ways to interact with seeds at the local level. Our interviewees have urged us to make it personal, to connect with seeds, and to consider them as being an integral part of what will make the movement of local agriculture thrive. Due to the fact that Genetically Modified seeds are designed not to reproduce, the action of saving local seeds is an essential part of the solution. To this end we wanted to provide you with an introductory resource on how to start saving your own seeds and begin investing in seed banks in your local region.
In thinking about who could help us get informed about starting a seed bank we were lucky enough to meet Paul Massey, who is the Director of the Regenerations Botanical Garden in Hawaii. Paul’s five-year-old organization stemmed from a love of his area and a sense of urgency: “falling in love with native flora that is highly endemic led to a realization that a lot of our natural places are highly degraded and are under high pressure from invasive species. It’s a time where we have to capture as much bio diversity as we can before it’s lost.” Since its inception Regenerations had a great deal of success and is continuing to grow it’s impressive seed libraries, seed gardens and engaging the communities with these issues. You can read about their programs here.
Below you’ll find Paul’s How-To Guide. When sharing this he only cautioned one thing – to remember that the process of developing relationships with seeds is not linear! Each local region has its own specific characteristics and he reminds us that there is no one way to approach this knowledge seeking. But rather, many areas of knowledge and experimentation must be sought on simultaneous tracks. From the very personal use of seeds, to the development of a business in a seed bank, what Paul shares with us are reminders, guideposts, and places to jump from. For those of us that are novice seed savers his How-To is an excellent place to start and I’ve found nothing quite like it in all my online research.
[gallery ids="1998,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997"]
How to Start A Seed Bank by Paul Massey
• Learn how to grow & save your own seeds
Connect with local growers
You will discover which crops are important and interesting to your community
• Learn about the native flora
Many native plants are difficult to source and may be in desperate need of horticultural management
• Learn the indigenous cultures' crops and farming practices of your region
The place-based wisdom of native peoples is often extensive and sustainable
• Get to know the local crop varieties, including landraces
What seed is being produced in your area? If done commercially, it is probably well suited to the current environmental conditions. Especially important are landraces – crops that are highly adapted to specific areas and local low-input farming systems.
• Connect with botanical/agricultural agencies
For example botanical gardens; agricultural extension services; state, federal, and university agriculture departments; invasive species councils, etc. These are primary sources of regulatory, scientific, and technical information related to seed production and environmental management.
• Connect with existing local, regional, and national seed networks/seed suppliers
A wealth of open-pollinated seed is available as never before. Though there were magnitudes more total varieties in decades past, access to diversity is at an all-time high
• Get involved in and/or start your own seed exchange
A great way to meet growers, see local crops, assess seed saving skills of your community.
• Read the seed banking literature
Everything you need is online. Research what sources are relevant for your area and start to make connections there.
• Define the scope of your efforts, find your niche
We are primarily focusing on locally adapted food crops, with a secondary focus on native & medicinal. If you are in an urban area you might want to look into who is using aquaponics, rooftop gardens, vertical gardens and farms, and community gardens. The groups and individuals involved in these initiatives can help you define where you’d like to start, what your needs are how you’d like to contribute.
• Source local & affordable equipment
Even seed banks in developing countries with no electricity are successful. These initiatives don’t have be expensive and cause a financial drain. By finding your niche and interest you can then see what supplies you might need and source creatively.
• Select safe & redundant locations
If you are building a seed bank make sure you back up your collection of seeds in two locations.
• Develop a business model for the seed bank that works for your community
Members will have the tendency to compare the prices of your seed with commercial growers. If you are building a seed bank consider creative methods of acquiring memberships and buy in. For example, when members set their own prices for their seed they are placing the value themselves, therefore, getting more for their money and contributing to the sustainability of the seed bank.
• Make it fun!
For those of us that are excited and capable of growing our own food, saving seeds and contributing to local seed libraries is an ideal way to start. It empowers us, challenges us, and connects us, in a personal way, to our rapidly shifting food systems at both the local and international levels. As Miguel Santistevan reminded us, one of the most profound ways we can take action is to vote with our dollars and buy foods from local producers. By becoming local producers ourselves, even on the smallest of scales, we are making an impact on our food systems and our relationships to these systems.
As our contributors are doing their work, I will begin growing seeds in my tiny apartment in the hopes of making even a small batch of medicinal teas this summer and contributing some seeds back to the Pharmaseed in Montreal. While I do that, at Kindle Project, we’ll be continuing to keep abreast of the daily news that is surfacing about the fight against Monsanto, the action of farmers, and the developments of the Doomsday Bank. We will also continue learning from our partners who are saving seeds and working on these issues every day. Thank you to all our contributors this season and check back with us on April 5th when we’ll be starting a new theme!

Indigenous Knowledge and Seed Indigenous Knowledge and Seed: A conversation with Seeds of Freedom Adviser, Teresa Anderson
by Arianne Shaffer, Kindle Project
Seeds of Freedom - Trailer from The ABN and The Gaia Foundation on Vimeo.
“Global agriculture has changed more in the past 50 years than in the previous 10,000. Nowhere is this conflict more poignant than in the story of seed.”
The opening words of the Seeds of Freedom trailer grabbed us. As we’ve been studying seed issues for the past several weeks, the sheer amount and at times disturbing nature of information has been overwhelming. It begs us to question:
How can we possibly make sense of this tremendous shift in agriculture? How do we resolve the conflict this shift has created and where do seeds fit in?
What have we learned in our research? Genetically Modified (GM) seeds and the companies that produce them are providing catastrophic results for many communities around the world; they are grossly responsible for the devastation's that make up our current state of affairs in human food systems. Seed banks, through their actions and collections are leading the way in navigating this disturbing shift. Their creators are among the many individuals and organizations that are fervently working toward food sovereignty. These points are clear, but still, there are so many other pieces of the puzzle.
What are the areas of knowledge that we are missing to understand the whole picture of seed issues? Seeds of Freedom gives us one essential answer to this multifaceted question. Our conversation with one of the film’s advisers, Head of International Advocacy for the Gaia Foundation, Teresa Anderson, helps to uncover some of the other aspects of this quandary.
Overall, the film aims to paint a more global picture of how agriculture is shifting, illustrating how harmful changes in local seed knowledge affect local food systems, how that affects local ecosystems, and how that ultimately affects global food systems and ecosystems. However, the unique angle that Seeds of Freedom takes is focusing less on the effects of GM seeds and more on an issue not widely covered in the media: stories of indigenous knowledge from the Global South.
When I asked Teresa how communities in both Northern and Southern contexts can benefit from this film, she explained that the lessons of indigenous knowledge and biodiversity preservation are applicable everywhere. She added seed issues are “often communicated in a dry way, especially the way the policies have influenced the changes in the food systems. People don’t really have access or understanding of this, which is why we wanted to communicate it on film…to communicate the difference between biodiversity and monoculture.”
During my conversation with Teresa, I was most taken with the reality of cultural loss when biodiversity is lost. With most countries having little or no legislation to protect biodiversity in the face of GM seeds, it makes it all the more easy to ignore local and indigenous knowledge that has been informing farming systems for thousands of years. The Gaia Foundation has partnered with the African Biodiversity Network to create this film, and it seems as though they will have great success in getting this important message across. One of the great strengths of the African Biodiversity Network, Teresa notes, is their incredible capacity for finding those communities who are already working with indigenous knowledge as a part of building a sustainable and healthy ecosystem.
Seeds of Freedom will juxtapose two farming situations: One, a community in which farmers have the opportunity to use organic, local, and saved seeds that preserve biodiversity, nutritional diversity and cultural heritage. Two, a community in which farmers only have the opportunity to buy one or two varieties of seed that are designed not to be saved. “When you contrast the two it becomes clear what the problem is – it is reviving our biodiversity.” Teresa goes on to explain, “In order to understand the changes in our food systems it is critical to understand what diversity used to be. Those systems (from the past) made a lot of sense. They met farmers’ needs.”
How cultural and indigenous knowledge comes in, Teresa explained, is through the hands of the elders. By working with local elders in communities, in various African countries primarily, the Gaia Foundation is helping to revive seed diversity.
“Indigenous knowledge is completely ignored by modern seed,” Teresa shared. Community dialogues that include elders, specifically to ask them about the old practices of seed and agriculture innately incorporate the cultural element into the conversation. “Opening up a space for the indigenous knowledge to be shared allows room for younger generations to undo some of the damaging knowledge they’ve received from the GM seed pushers in their regions. The younger generations hear, learn and compare, and by integrating this knowledge, they are effectively reviving ecosystems.”
Teresa and I spoke about how the common Non-Governmental Organizational processes in dealing with cultural and/or environmental preservation are often not sustainable because there is an omission of the cultural and indigenous knowledge. Without this piece it becomes extremely difficult to sustain local biodiversity. Every person I’ve interviewed over the past weeks about these issues has reminded me that in order to build a sustainable seed bank, for example, I must also learn the local and indigenous practices of my region. Seeds of Freedom is echoing this reminder on a larger scale – and is placing it as a part of the broad conversation about GM seeds and modern agricultural practices.
As Teresa and I spoke, we shared some of those overwhelming sentiments of knowing a fair amount about the issue of GM seeds and the loss of biodiversity on our planet. We uncomfortably giggled even at the wave of tragedy that can wash over us with this knowledge, but this is why we do this work. Kindle Project is in a privileged position to meet people like Teresa and get to know organizations like the Gaia Foundation who remain committed advocates for this planet and the people on it.
Teresa shared that the role of Gaia “has always been about bringing issues and knowledge into the collective consciousness.” It seems as though their film is really going to help do that, and cliché as it may sound, knowledge is power. The more knowledge we can collect about this important issue, the more power we’ll have in working towards preservation of non-GM seed in our communities.
When Seeds of Freedom is launched in May we will be sharing it here. Stay tuned…

Film Review: Bitter Seeds Film Review: Bitter Seeds and a Conversation with Director, Micha X. Peled
by Arianne Shaffer, Kindle Project
Since Kindle Project’s inception we’ve been ardent supporters of using documentary film as a tool to bring about change. Documentaries are about truth telling. They give us often-undisclosed information about an issue that we would otherwise not have access to. In the case of Bitter Seeds, Micha X. Peled, the film’s director, manages to expose the stark realities of the ill effects of genetically modified seeds on farmers in India. This being the third film in his trilogy, he brings his audiences an extremely comprehensive yet personal account of the devastations wrought on human lives by the monopoly of corporate seed companies. The intensity with which he conveys this complex situation, particularly illustrated through the large wave of farmer suicides in the region, is why we were so enthusiastic about featuring his film.
[caption id="attachment_1958" align="aligncenter" width="457"] Still Image from Bitter Seeds - A Widow's Grief[/caption]
To describe the complexity and travesty of the situation in India is best left to the film itself. Similarly, the tremendous scope of Monsanto’s effects on global food systems would take far more than a blog post to cover. Especially as Monsanto is facing bio-piracy charges in India and is coming under fire from several other lawsuits. However, this is why Micha’s film was the ideal entry point for us to understand part of the overwhelming number of complex issues that Genetically Modified (GM) seeds and Monsanto bring to the table. Having had the opportunity to watch the film this month I was able to put faces and names to this issue.
[caption id="attachment_1955" align="aligncenter" width="457"] Still Image from Bitter Seeds - Ram Krishna in his field[/caption]
“Companies like the U.S.-based Monsanto claim that their GM seeds offer the most effective solution to feeding the world’s growing population, but on the ground, many small-scale farmers are losing their land. Nowhere is the situation more desperate than in India, where an epidemic of farmer suicides has claimed over a quarter million lives. Every 30 minutes one farmer in India, deep in debt and unable to provide for his family, commits suicide.” (Source: teddybearfilm.com)
[caption id="attachment_1952" align="aligncenter" width="440"] Still from Bitter Seeds, Manjusha (on the left) with family and photos. Her father, who was a farmer who committed suicide, is in the photo on the right.[/caption]
While the film’s narrative focus is on farmer suicides, it also reveals the many aspects of this issue that tie it into the worldwide grassroots resistance to companies like Monsanto. It manages to make the connections between the personal and global easy to grasp. Through the film’s main characters I was able to understand the despondency that is present for the farmers in India and could relate to the sensibility of many farmers and activists in my own country who are grappling with similar issues, though not quite so grave. However, the film does spark questions in my mind of what the future holds for farmers in Canada and the US, and just how far away this reality is from home.
[caption id="attachment_1951" align="aligncenter" width="449"] Still from Bitter Seeds - Keshev, an elder in the community, speaks about his knowledge of seeds[/caption]
Micha’s first film in his globalization trilogy, Store Wars: When Walmart Comes to Town looked at the polarizing effect of the arrival of a Walmart in Ashland, VA. The second film, China Blue, follows the story of two girls working in a jeans factory in China. The final piece in the trilogy, Bitter Seeds, takes us to the source of the raw material, cotton, exported to China and used to produce said jeans. Micha’s films focus on the existing global superpowers and their effects on individuals and with Bitter Seeds we’re seeing how these superpowers are truly starting to take control in very detrimental ways.
In speaking with Micha I was particularly interested in Monsanto’s lack of presence in the film. Monsanto refused to be interviewed for the film and I was curious if they had seen it since its release. Micha explains, “I’m in no hurry to inform them of the film. There’s been a number of cases recently where huge corporations use legal threats to keep a film from showing.” As was the case, Micha told me, with the film Food Inc. which Monsanto attempted to have blocked from various networks in the Midwest. Making a documentary about something controversial poses risks to the filmmaker and instead of placing his focus on the potential reaction of Monsanto, he is devoted to the issues and is working hard to advocate for farmers both nationally and internationally using his film as a vehicle for this advocacy.
Bitter Seeds has already had some very significant success winning two awards at IDFA this past year. However, for Micha, the success of the film is largely based on its distribution and role in educating organizations and individuals about what they can do to be a part of the necessary shift away from GM seeds. Micha has received a distribution grant to help in these efforts. Additionally, having received the Oxfam Global Justice Award 6000 DVD’s of Bitter Seeds will be sent to Oxfam members in the Netherlands, which will include the extensive fact sheet that accompanies the film. In addition, Greenpeace in India is interested in using the film as a part of an upcoming anti-GMO (genetically modified organisms) campaign.
Micha and his team have partnered with Working Films to connect the film with various advocacy groups in the US. Currently, Micha is very focused on California’s Ballot Initiative Campaign that is working to mandate the labeling of foods that have GM ingredients. “The US Farm Bill is coming up for renewal this year and many coalitions are working towards this, these groups could benefit from using this film,” Micha explains.
Farmer suicides in India, the proper labeling of foods that contain GM ingredients, crop insurance, and the effects of climate change on agriculture, to name a few, are major issues all connected through the corporate takeover of our food systems relevant to all communities across the globe. Education, awareness, activism, resistance and mobilizing need to happen in as many local communities as possible in order to address this global problem. What Micha has done with his film and the subsequent educational distribution and activism thereof is one excellent example of that. The grave future that our planet’s food systems are facing if we don’t pay attention to seed saving, seed justice, and speak out against companies like Monsanto is dismal. The stories and people we meet in Bitter Seeds are sad reminders of this.
It’s often all too easy to watch a documentary and be moved in the moment but feel disconnected a few hours later. What Micha has done with Bitter Seeds, as he has done with the other two films in the trilogy, is to create a network of support and activism around these issues. A very comprehensive website will be available shortly for the film that will allow viewers to engage and respond to these pressing issues. We will be sure to let you know when that site goes live.
Micha’s films and their supporting materials respond to his favorite question from viewers, What can I do? He takes us beyond our superficial Google searches of Monsanto and farmer suicides in India and brings us personal, relatable stories and pushes us past the “perceived reality that is often controlled by the corporate world,” as he aptly describes it. Reminiscent of Chomsky’s call for us to access all information available to us, Micha does a lot of the work for us, and now it’s up to us to use his research to take action in our own ways.
Resources and Links
• Watch the Bitter Seeds trailer on the Teddy Bear Film site here
• Download the Bitter Seeds FAQ and Factsheet here
• Store Wars website with educational resources
• China Blue website with educational resources
All images courtesy of Micha X. Peled and Teddy Bear Films

The Doomsday Vault Plan B The Doomsday Vault Plan B: A Conversation with Miguel Santistevan
by Arianne Shaffer, Kindle Project
Intimacy. Apocalypse. Respect. Plan B. Activism. These are just some of the words that came up in my conversation with Kindle Project grantee, Miguel Santistevan. Not at all what I was expecting when I was planning my interview with him in regards to seeds and the ‘Doomsday Vault’. But then again, that’s just one of the reasons why Miguel is one of our grantees. As our in-house seed expert he works in truly holistic ways – meshing the spiritual with the scientific, the social with the practical and all the while being one of the most fascinating people we’ve ever met.
Miguel and I spoke primarily about the Doomsday Vault but I quickly discovered that asking him about this Norwegian project I was unraveling many other questions we’ve been asking ourselves at Kindle for the past couple months and Miguel provided us with some answers.
The idea of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (a.k.a The Doomsday Vault) is something we could not ignore while focusing our attention to seeds. A kind of science fiction-esque cave set in Norway just over 8oo miles from the North Pole storing already half a million seed samples from around the world. A quick Google image search will reveal this silvery structure embedded in ice as a kind of ominous reminder of what is at stake in our current global, political, environmental and climate context. The seeds that are housed in this vault are from all over the world and anybody can place seeds there free of charge, thanks to the Norwegian government who has funded this initiative to the tune of roughly US$9 million.
In speaking with Miguel I was curious about his opinions on the vault. As someone who understands, lives and works with seeds on both the very personal and broader academic and global levels I was certain his thoughts on the vault would provide insights into this controversial project.
When I asked Miguel to share his thoughts about the vault in Norway I knew his answer would not be simple: “I think it’s a good idea… At local level and at the bigger level we need to think of a Plan B. It’s a good idea as a back up, but it’s only half a solution – it’s ex-citu conservation - in-situ conservation is more important. It’s only 400 feet above sea level and I think we’re in for a great surprise in terms of what the ocean and earth are capable of doing. We’re blind to the potential of what this mother earth can do to clean herself. I think we need a better plan.”
Miguel’s suggestion was to have not just one massive seed bank that addresses a post-apocalyptic scenario, but rather to build thousands of seed banks all over the world. This would then address the problem and pressure the seeds in the Norway vault face – feeding people. Miguel’s assessment of these seeds is that they would need about five years to adapt to a local climate, soil and etc. Then how viable is this vault? Is there still a way to decentralize the world’s seeds? What else can we do?
In answering some of these questions with Miguel I was struck by the innate complexities that this vault presents. Additionally, it opened up a whole new arena for our conversation to the necessary depth of relationship we need to get to with the seeds we save and cultivate. “This Norway vault is still treating seeds an object to be saved. I see seeds as an ambassador of mother earth. Human beings are in a symbiosis with plant world… we’re forgetting the original relationship with the seeds, we’re abandoning that and just focusing on technology and economy.” The way Miguel went on to speak about his relationships with seeds expressed a kind of intimacy I was not expecting. His reverence for seeds in combination with his experienced, academic, and scientific knowledge of this field was humbling.
“The wisdom and relationship with seeds is very personal and very intimate. It’s challenging…It’s one of the most engaging and beautiful experiences I’ve ever had.” He reminds us to listen to the seeds, to notice the earth, the land, the water, the climate and all the changes these elements are going through. Without this relationship, and the attention required to cultivate it, it seems all the seeds in the world, even if protected in the icy vault will be of little use to us as humans.
From the magnitude of the Doomsday Vault to the minutia of a single square inch of soil on Miguel’s land I was left wondering how I could be involved, invested and active in this issue of seeds and their sovereignty living in an urban metropolis. Miguel’s reminders were simple: “Even though you’re in the concrete jungle – remember there’s soil under that. Sledgehammer it. Break through it!”
He urged us as urban dwellers to remember that every time we’re eating, we’re voting with our food choices. Seems simplistic enough, but not unlike the complexities of each square inch of land, we must consider each square inch of cultivatable space in urban areas. We spoke of community gardens, raised beds, vericomposts, rooftop gardens, and the many ways urban dwellers are engaging with local farmers to engage with these issues on a daily and very personal level.
For Miguel, saving his seeds and cultivating his growing seed libraries is a form of local and global activism. We spoke about activism in general and how some are drawn to protests and rallies while others contribute to activism in seemingly more quiet and personal ways. “The most hard core revolutionary out there is maize – she’s not out there protesting, she’s very graceful and doing what she’s doing.” It may seem like a soft argument. Perhaps a plant is not the kind of leader activists are looking for, but Miguel’s illustration of maize as a revolutionary was as perceptive and as in-depth as his analysis of the Norway vault. He explained that agricultural activism is not about jumping on a bandwagon, because this kind of activism demands one be committed and consistent all the while “putting you in touch with your own mortality.”
Exploring the Doomsday Vault with Miguel acted as a kind of call to action, a very personal one that encourages me to look at cultivable land in my city, to keep reading and trying to understand the complexities of this vault and to foster a relationship with the ways that I can contribute to this changing food systems of our planet. Miguel’s words really sum this up, “we need to engage with seeds in the present so that we can have an agricultural future.” How we carry this forward is up to each of us and whether the seeds in the Norway vault will be viable for future generations is not something we can know now, but according to Miguel the chances of that being successful hinge on our intimate and personal relationships to each individual seed.
With a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of New Mexico and a Master of Science degree in Ecology from the University of California, Davis, Miguel Santistevan is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Biology at the University of New Mexico. His research interests are in the traditional acequia-irrigated and dryland agricultural systems of the Upper Rio Grande and Sangre de Cristo mountains. Miguel is certified in Permaculture and ZERI Design and has been a High School science teacher in Pecos, Peñasco, and Taos school districts. He has directed youth-in-agriculture programs such as ePlaza of Hands Across Cultures and the Regional Development Corporation and the Sembrando Semillas youth-in-agriculture project of the New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA). He has produced video and public radio programming (¡Que Vivan las Acequias!) with the NMAA and Cultural Energy, of which he is a Board Member. He maintains a conservation farm with his wife and daughter in Taos called Sol Feliz where many visitors have participated in educational presentations, tours, and hands-on workshops (www.solfelizfarm.org). Miguel coordinates a ‘Living Seed Library’ program through the Agriculture Implementation, Research, and Education non-profit corporation he is co-founding (www.growfarmers.org). Miguel has recently been elected Chairman of the Acequia Sur de Río de Don Fernando de Taos for the 2010-2011 growing season of which he is a parciante (irrigator) and past Mayordomo (ditch boss). He also serves as a Board Member for the Taos Valley Acequia Association. More information on Miguel can be found at www.unm.edu/~msanti.
Photo Source of Seed Vault - National Geographic News

Pharmaseed – A Montreal Based Seed Library with a Focus on Health At Kindle Project our ideas and questions about the issues we are most passionate about are rarely clear-cut. We oscillate between the philosophical, the practical, and the political. As we delve into the exploration of seeds it seems only fitting that we begin with a conversation with Cameron Stiff, a Montreal based environmentalist who is starting a seed library, Pharmaseed, with a very specific purpose – health.
Seed saving is as old as agriculture itself but it is hardly common practice nor is it a priority for most people, even those with their own gardens. In the coming weeks we will be exploring various aspects of seed saving, seed libraries and the reasons behind creating these essential initiatives. Pharmaseed allows us to look at one of the why’s behind starting a seed library and how as individuals we can become personally invested in projects such as these.
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Pharmaseed will be a public seed bank located in Montreal at the Sierra Youth Coalition offices. Set to launch in spring of this year, visitors can come to browse and take (and at the end of the season, replenish) various seeds. Cameron describes his desired outcome for the project: “I want to explore, in depth, the different medicinal and nutritional qualities of different plants, bring them forward and create a (seed bank) where people get prescriptions, and then get a plan to make a garden to suit their personal health needs.” He explains that this process can be both self-prescribed and aided with guidance to build one’s own garden. All seeds at the Pharmaseed will be stored in medical pill bottles as a part of the statement the project puts forth about our health and our relationship to plants and environment, and of course, to our medical system.
Cameron explains that his work has always centered around “the connections between our environment and our food, which both have an immense quality and impact on our health. But, this seems to be invisible to us and to the medical system.” He went to explain that in North America “we are very hard, we have hard outer shells and tend to accept the physical conditions we are (used to) thinking we can live through them.”
Cameron described the following anecdote to me that captures the importance of seeds and urban health and outlines the genesis of his idea for Pharmaseed:
“When I first moved to Montreal I used to just walk a lot late at night. An artist and an herbalist had done an installation by the train tracks in the Mile End (neighborhood). It was an installation of local flora with medicinal properties. There was a collection of planters with descriptions and medical properties listed.”
The plant that struck Cameron the most was Ragweed, a common plant in many urban settings that is often the cause of seasonal allergies. “Ragweed is a carbon dioxide-avore, it purifies the air around it which is why it flourishes so much in cities. It purifies air and soil. We have this plant that flourishes because of the poor design of our cities but we try to exterminate it and treat ourselves with pharmaceuticals that could have short and long term negative side effects on our health. Discovering ragweed was a big building block in my environmental consciousness.”
Many pharmaceuticals are derived from plants and while the field of allopathic medicine is aware of this, it is not often referenced; therefore further disconnecting us from the literal roots of the healing agents we choose when we are ill or imbalanced.
Plant based medicine and the knowledge that stems from this is extremely old and one of the most well recorded bodies of knowledge has its roots in the Vedic Period of India. Remembering this long history acts as a reminder that saving seeds and seeking health knowledge from plants is not something new for us as a human species. However, our current system of Western medicine often does not acknowledge, with enough emphasis, the importance of plants in our overall health.
While Pharmaseed is not about being in opposition to allopathic medicine, it does, however, empower individuals to consider their own health needs and make choices based on those needs. While Pharmaseed’s overarching mission is similar to that of other seed banks (preserving genetic diversity of plants, preserving organic and heirloom plant varieties, ensuring the resilience of plant varieties and etc.) it is viewing the necessity of seed saving through the lens of health. Unique in its mission, which has political and social statements in the way it is set up, Pharmaseed is providing a health alternative that is free, self-directed, based in ancient knowledge and is sustainable.
Pharmaseed is helping to reframe how we interact with our concepts of health and what is available to us. It asks those of us who are capable and interested in building our own gardens to think about what imbalances exist in our health and aid those imbalances by carefully cultivating plants that can help support our health. It makes the seed as important as the medicine; the seed becomes the medicine. Furthermore it challenges our notions of where our foods and medicines come from and asks us to save what is precious and necessary for the survival of our many plant species that we rely on whether knowingly or unknowingly. Cameron reminds us that, “We don’t always see how valuable seeds are. We live in a society where big things matter. We have to reprogram our internal calculators to realize that small is powerful and beautiful and within that tiny seed is immense potential. It’s up to us if we want to cultivate it. A pill bottle could have thousands of seeds in it…If global systems breakdown we will need local resources in ways we’re not used to - then the single seed will be seen as useful.” The power of this one seed library is that it is helping to make seeds important to us, personally.
When Pharmaseed launches we will let you know and at that time there will also be resources available about how you might start a Pharmaseed in your community.
Cameron is a huge fan of the wilderness, feeling most at home in a stand of ancient hardwoods, or on a mountainside, or sitting on a surfboard in the ocean. His love of nature and the finer qualities of humanity - our intelligence, creativity and ability to love - motivate him to work for social justice and the environment. He dreams of sustainable cities, car-free, green and livable, living symbiotically with their surrounding countryside, rather than 'taking, making and wasting', in the words of green architect and Cradle-to-Cradle author William McDonough. Cameron has organized extensively around climate change at the national and international levels, worked at Concordia University in Montreal on a variety of sustainability projects, led greening and sustainability projects in his neighbourhood, and co-created a social networking platform for social entrepreneurs. He loves woodworking, making music, growing and cooking food, yoga, hockey, and theatre, and traveling to new and exciting places, meeting incredible people and learning new things about himself and the world.

Seeds - Introducing a Three Month Theme on the Kindle Project Blog [caption id="attachment_1874" align="alignleft" width="499"] People walk past an advert against genetically modified food on a Paris subway station platform. The advert reads in French: ‘It is safe. Regarding GMOs, we still don’t have enough hindsight’.[/caption]
For the next three months the Kindle Project blog will focus on an issue that is often at the forefront of our minds – seeds: their sovereignty, production, and importance. As the local food movement is growing in urban centers worldwide and the popular trend of homesteading and DIY is gaining greater momentum a slightly greyer area of food and environmental justice lays in the issue of seeds. While there are known and publicized issues surrounding the mega agricultural biotech company of Monsanto and the injustices coming from their production and distribution of genetically modified seeds, there is still much to explore in terms of how we make these injustices relevant to each of us on a personal and daily level.
The issue of seeds is a complex one and while it may seem odd to focus our attention to seeds during the winter months, this is precisely when seeds are most relevant. For the next three months many North Americans will be participating in seed trades, sales, and collections. Farmers big and small, local gardeners, and individuals are beginning to plot their gardens and land for the spring and summer months.
For many of us living in the developed world we experience a false sense of abundance. What is available to us is not always what grows near to where we live. This is, of course, not new information for most of us. For those of us that have had the privilege and the need to educate ourselves on food issues we have grown accustomed to thinking about food sourcing, farmers rights and eating local. However, there is a very real threat of scarcity, (due to changing environmental landscapes, seed wars, GMO’s etc.), that prevents us from looking further at times. And oddly, the issues around seeds and seed justice are all too often swept under the rug.
As we spend time studying seeds in the next several weeks we will be doing so by asking a lot of questions and hopefully be providing some answers: How can people living in urban centers become engaged in seed issues? Is it important for people living in urban centers to care about seeds? What are the reasons behind building seed libraries and why is this important? How are artists and filmmakers engaging with seed issues and helping to bring tangible information to the public? If food scarcity is real for all of us, what do seeds have to do with this? What can I do to understand seeds in a more meaningful way?
For us, and many others, seeds represent what is possible for our planet, what is sacred and also what is most pressing. We live in urgent times with a planet whose environmental shifts are already causing grave effects. But, seeds remind us that despite urgency we need to patient, we need to let things incubate, grow, flourish and rest.
It is our hope that you’ll join in on this conversation with us by commenting on our posts and sharing what it is you know and what it is you want to know about seeds.
Looking forward to an exciting year ahead on the Kindle Project blog!
Image Source

Paolo Pedercini and Closing to the Season After six weeks of featuring our Makers Muse Recipients it seems only fitting that our final post of the year is about Paolo Pedercini who is an artist, educator and the mind behind the cutting edge creations of Molleindustria. His work reflects the very essence of what captivates us about the spirit and purpose of the Makers Muse Award. We are always looking for people who use media and art in ways that push the boundaries of our perceptions of what any given medium can accomplish. The way Blu makes murals move, the way that eL Seed infuses beauty into issues of identity, the way in which Geraldine Juárez tackles issues of technology and piracy, and the ways in which Tessa Farmer, Ian Nagoski and Simon Norfolk expose us to worlds that we would otherwise not be privy to – these are the outcomes of art that trigger new ideas, critical thought and engagement. Pedercini’s work does this through the art of video games.
If we were to play a word association game, where we ask you to say the first three words you think of when we say ‘video game’ it’s likely your answers will not be related to issue of gender, religious fundamentalism, and environment. After experiencing Pedercini’s games, however, they might be.
Pedercini’s work asks us to focus on the issues that are most pressing in our times through video games. In this interview on the Culture Jamming site he describes the aim of Molleindustria as a “start (to) a serious discussion about the political implications of videogames and also to produce various, very quick simple games – experimental games - to spread a political message and to criticize the mainstream videogames as a cultural form.”
Pedercini has challenged the very notions of what gaming and entertainment mean culturally and exposes the potential impact this industry can make in the areas of social and environmental justice. Paolo’s games open a door for the player to explore complex social issues such as food politics, gender, labor and corporatization. This September we featured one of Pedercini’s projects – Phone Story – a smartphone app that allowed the user to play an educational game about the back end journey of mobile electronic devices and the human rights atrocities committed in their production. Proceeds from the app went to organizations working on these issues. Apple banned the sale of this app just hours after it was released, but not before it made it into the hands of consumers worldwide, catalyzing important discussion around labor and censorship.
To play Molleindustria’s games click here.
To learn about Paolo Pedercini click here.
[caption id="attachment_1848" align="alignleft" width="310"] An image from Molleindustria's Faith Fighter game[/caption]
Note to our readers:
Kindle Project will be closing for the holidays and we’ll be back in 2012 with weekly features on our blog starting January 5th. We’ve been cooking up some exciting ideas and new collaborations and we are really looking forward to sharing them with you. As always, if you have an idea for an article, feature or post please be in touch (arianne@kindleproject.org). Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year!

Simon Norfolk Simon Norfolk has received many accolades for his work as an outstanding photographer and wordsmith. His vision and clarity allow his photographs to read as delicate studies of a reality riddled by the bizarre and often horrific. Whether they be the haunting mass graves in Rwanda, the bizarre complexities of the supercomputers used to wage war, and currently the people and the streets of Erbil, his photographic explorations are unprecedented works in documentary photography.
Norfolk seduces his audience with the perfection of beauty; the blues and pinks of predawn light, melodic compositions, portraits of resilience and decay of man and his systems and structures. The eye is drawn into the photograph, satiated in its pristine jest, basking in the cacophony of a moment captured through his eyes. Beauty becomes merely the tool that tricks the audience into becoming captivated. Upon that captivation, Norfolk’s world of battlefield and its casualties, mortality and the hope of superhuman power over nature, reveals itself. A world littered in the filth of machinery, smoke, and war. As the elements of beauty and horror collide in a Norfolk photo, there is a calm and eerie silence that permeates the space. This is the brilliance of Norfolk.
Simon Norfolk is writing to us from Erbil, Iraq where he is on assignment for Suddeutsche Zeitung's magazine. Below he shares his most recent photos and writing from that trip. His reflections from Erbil are as calm and detailed as his photographs. Exposing truths without gratuity or sensationalism. Norfolk’s of the moment, astute and candid contemplations from his time there are the kinds of informative and personal observations from photojournalists that we rarely get to see.
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Writings from Simon Norfolk in Erbil
I'm writing this on battery power, sitting in bed fully-clothed, during a power blackout. I'm in Erbil in northern Iraq, and in December it can get pretty chilly here at night. This is the capital of what is effectively one of the newest countries on earth, Kurdistan; although realpolitik means that for now (and in return for 17% of Iraq's oil revenue,) they've agreed to remain part of Iraq. But despite the fact that this part of the nation had a 12 year head-start in getting rid of Saddam (the 'No-Fly Zone' of the 1990s kept him at bay and allowed a free Kurdistan to flourish,) and despite it being awash in new-found petrodollars; they still can't keep the power on 24/7.
Which is odd because the rest of town, whilst not exactly 'the next Dubai' I was promised, is booming. Forests of construction cranes pierce the skyline; every plot of land features the skeletal, concrete beginnings of another opulent home; and luxury Hummers cruise the city streets like vulgar, chrome cockroaches. Erbil has a shopping mall big enough for 8,000 shops, the tallest building in Iraq, and a new airport with a runway long enough to land a Space Shuttle. (Or, if/when the war against Iran gets declared, the biggest US military transport planes. How convenient.)
On the local news there's been trouble in the nearby city of Zakho. Islamists have been burning down places selling alcohol. I'm staying in the suburb of Ankawa which is a Christian neighbourhood. As they aren't muslims, they are free to drink and sell alcohol, something which they've taken to with gusto and the main drag is one long booze outlet after another. The owners are all glued to the same news channel whose nervous commentary carries from shop to shop as you walk by. (I've been advised to avoid any demonstrations and keep a low profile. With my colossal camera on its tripod, that's going to be a little awkward.) And yet I didn't even know Kurdistan had Islamists. Does the US know that they killed off Saddam only to wake up to find that he had kept the Islamist genie corked in its bottle and even the Kurds, so friendly to the US they're even friendly to Israel, are beginning to be radicalised?
But the hardest thing about working in places like this is the kindness of strangers. I'm here on assignment for Suddeutsche Zeitung's magazine and I'm being helped by contacts of my journalist colleague. As a joint German/Kurdish business here, they take an ultra-conservative line on personal security for the foreigners they're charged with. Its very kind of them to worry about where I'm going/what time I'm coming home/the security situation in town but it feels like I'm being swaddled in cotton-wool. I don't know the place well enough to disregard their advice about not being seen to take pictures in the city centre, but in that case, why on earth am I here? My plan to use a bike to survey the city has been crushed. (Cycling is a great way to get the width and breadth of a place: slow enough to see what's going on and to give you a chance to stop, fast enough to get past trouble before it's noticed you.) I'm sure the city isn't as dangerous as they say; everyone seems friendly enough: but it's hard to calibrate. I'm new here, I don't want to get caught out like a fool; and this is Iraq, after all!
All this is tomorrow's problem. The light's are still off and any heat I had in the room is starting to ebb away. My laptop's battery, which has kept my lap warm this last half hour, now says '12%.' It's 9.15pm: time to put on more clothes, and go to bed. Goodnight!

Blu
With street artists continuing to gain international recognition in both the institutionalized art world and street art realms, the work of Blu is currently reaching the top of the list of admired street artists. He manages massive feats of stop motion animation, as seen above in his ten minute Big Bang Big Boom video. Crafting impermanent worlds on streets throughout Europe and Latin America Blu’s work, similar to Tessa Farmer’s, gives us a glimpse into worlds that we often don’t see, or choose not to see.
Blu’s work is revelatory. Once you get past the wondering of how he manages to make the videos and massive murals he does, you’re swept up in the world he’s creates. His monsters and creatures, some friendly, some mean, and some morphing from one to the other, enchants those that come in contact with them. In his mural work, left on walls throughout his travels, he manages to connect to the people and lands – acknowledging heritage, history, and current struggle.
In spring of this year Italian filmmaker Lorenzo Fonda released a documentary (exclusively on Wired.it) he made about Blu and their travels through Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Argentina. The film’s trailer is below and is real testament to the humility, poetry and quiet magic that Blu creates.
http://blublu.org/

eL Seed eL Seed is an artist that captures the beauty of contradictions. Working with graffiti and street art in non-traditional ways, while infusing his work with elements of traditional Islamic calligraphy, he’s developed his own distinctive brand of Calligraffiti. His work is not only aesthetically breathtaking, but it often comes with humble messages, grace, power, identity explorations and gentle political commentary.
In his recent exhibition, On the Road to Damascus, which was a part of a collaborative show at Montreal’s Fresh Paint Gallery eL Seed used his Calligraffiti to explore the duality of struggle in the Arab world: “My latest exhibition series is inspired from the recent events that have taken place in my home country Tunisia, and also in the Arab World. ‘On the road to Damascus’ has a double meaning in this case: partly noting the unique moment in history we are all witnessing, and partly paying tribute to the struggle of the Syrian population.”
eL Seed is currently in high demand. His travel and work schedule are full as museums, communities and intellectuals are taking notice of him on an international level.
To name just a few of his recent endeavors: He participated as a speaker and an artist at Pop Tech 2011. He was invited to LA to make ‘This is just a phrase in Arabic” (see video here), and to Doha, Qatar to conduct Calligraffiti workshops with students in partnership with the Museum of Islamic Art. Here he has shared with us a reflection of his time in Doha along with a beautifully shot video produced on that trip (see below).
Currently, eL Seed has continued to create work within the perplexing theme of revolution, Arab identity and uprising in the Middle East. In his upcoming participation in the anticipated Arab Winter project, opening at the Fresh Paint Gallery on December 2nd, Arab Winter deals with the innate struggle of revolution in Arab countries and the questions that arise during and after a swell of a revolutionary movement.
Nothing like it has been attempted so far and it is sure to be an experiential exhibit that will tackle hard questions and “contemplate issues of the past and establish the questions we need to ask ourselves about the future. What is it like the day after the revolution? When the dust settles, who will help us clean up?” (see the Arab Winter tumblr here) In collaboration with other prominent Montreal based Arab artists this exhibit is already generating a lot of buzz. Each artist is being featured in a short video, here is the one of eL Seed talking about the project. To learn more about the collaborative exhibit to and support Arab Winter please visit their Indigogo site where they are raising the remainder of the funds needed to launch this exhibit.
Arab Winter: eL Seed Artist Profile from The Narcicyst on Vimeo.
Reflections from Doha, by eL Seed
When I was first contacted by the Museum of Islamic Art, I was surprised that such an institution would be interested in graffiti, and at the same time, honoured that my work had caught their attention. During one week I conducted a series of workshops with students from neighbouring schools. The purpose of each workshop was to introduce Calligraffiti to youth who either have or have no previous experience with the art process. They learnt various spray paint techniques, graffiti designs and lettering. The desired outcome of these workshops was to instill feelings of artistic agency and pride in realizing large-scale masterpieces in a group environment. As the week came to a close, I felt that the Museum was striving to both carry the traditions of Islamic Art and keep a vision oriented toward the future. The success of this amazing experience would not have been possible without the dedication of several Museum employees: I would like to personally thank Amel Saadi-Cherif and Deena Hammam, the team of the MIA, and all the participants.
One Week at the Museum | MIA Doha, Qatar | eL Seed from eL Seed on Vimeo.
http://www.elseed-art.com/

Ian Nagoski Trying to write an introduction for Ian Nagoski’s piece below seems almost futile. Listening to the very special song by Vera Filipova and reflecting on Nagoski’s words is an experience in itself. Ian is not a conventional musician but more of a precision craftsman that weaves together history and layers of mystery that has been held in musical notes and compositions for decades. One of the things that drew us to Nagoski was his most recent album: To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-29. His passion, love, intrigue and steadfastness to these old records are qualities so unique we couldn’t help but take notice. Nagoski urges us to reflect on the international sounds and communities that helped to form the cultural landscape of America.
Here he takes us effortlessly into his world. His meditation on music love and discovering of old sounds is a welcome respite. Listen to the Filipova track below (embedded in the article) while reading Nagoski's piece and let yourself sink into the words and world's that he has so carefully produced.
To learn more about Nagoski please watch this beautiful short film produced in conjunction with the release of the record: The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-29.
Listening, Love, and Time
by Ian Nagoski
Earlier this year, Harley Gaber and I were talking about composing music. The problem he felt he’d run into was that he’d been desperate to describe the very dramatic terrain of his lived experience, an experience which felt utterly huge and which had caused him to make overwhelming experiences for others so that they’d know what it was like. He warned me against my impulses to “invade” the consciousness of others, to make a music that would enter a person like a virus. Music and poetry cause delirium but the fevers they give are delicious because of a subtler set of triggers than the grandiose mind-invasion than the novice poet wants.
Ornette Coleman told an interviewer, “I don’t think about communication; I think about sharing.” That difference requires taking your foot off the throttle and changing your relationship to the destination. It can be felt.
Listening alone to music, the best experiences are very close to falling in love. There is the sense of recognition – “yes! You! There you are, just like I wanted you to be.” There is trust in one’s own feelings and desires. There is wonder and awe in another person – who they are and what they are capable of. And there is a moment of fulfillment that could not possibly have been predicted just a minute before. It’s great. And I keep going looking for it.
I had that feeling with a piece of Harley’s, a string quintet released in 1975, the year I was born, called The Winds Rise in the North. And I went looking for Harley a decade ago after having had that experience, but I didn’t find him until about this time last year. We became firm friends in our first phone conversation, and then this past summer he died. He sent me the manuscript of Winds Rise a few months before his death. It’s in my closet waiting for me to find it a home in an archive where it can be cared for and studied by others
It’s OK if it takes a little time. I am a slow and faithful person.
I arrived recently at page 830 of Rebecca West's sprawling Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia, written about her six-week trip in 1937. Page 830 is something like the three-quarters of the way mark. At that point in West's travelogue, she witnessed an animal sacrifice fertility ritual in Macedonia which horrified her and caused to blow long and loud on foundational Christian principles of sacrifice and love, blasting through judgements of Augustine, Martin Luther, Mozart, Blake, Austin and Shakespeare, in the process of which she was compelled to quote from Sonnet 116:
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove
It is, in other words, slow and faithful.
A decade after West was in Macedonia, a singer named Vera Filipova recorded four performances at the radio station of Skopje of what was by then the center of the Macedonia state inside the People’s Republic of Yugoslavia under Tito. Here (verafilipovamp3) is a folk song she recorded, and which I happened across in a box full of Macedonian records made some time before 1953 that someone traded to me. I keep going back to this song; there’s something special about it. I’m starting to love it. Nothing at present is known about Vera’s life. From the sound of her voice, she was young when Rebecca West was in Skopje, but how young? A child? An adolescent? Possibly there are still photos or recordings of her in some closet there, waiting for someone to care enough to look or ask. Maybe you’ll love it when you hear it and your love will be the love to carry it forward in your heart and memory. Maybe you’ll be the person to keep her alive when you hear her.
[song credit: “Kirajdjice Jabandjice” – Vera Filipova, recorded ca. 1950 Skopje, Macedonia. Transfer and restoration by Ian Nagoski]
Ian's Website and places to purchase his releases from his favorite record stores:
• http://mangkunegaran.tumblr.com/
• Brass Pins & Match Heads: International 78s
• Marika Papagika - The Further the Flame, the Worse it Burns Me: Greek
Folk Music in New York, 1919-28
• To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora,
1916-29

Feature: Tessa Farmer Tessa Farmer is perhaps one of the more extraordinary artists we’ve had the chance to get to know recently. Tessa creates obsessively grotesque worlds of decay and mortality in the natural and magical worlds of miniature fairies, insects, and animals. These creatures are the furthest things from the saccharine pop culture fairies that might immediately come to mind. Her macabre fairies bring the viewer into an experience of a different world of dark and uncomfortable whimsy.
John Doran wrote about it best when describing her recent collaboration with electronic musician Amon Tobin. "Amon Tobin and Tessa Farmer are going deeper and deeper into their art, away from the macro and into the micro but they are fearless explorers like Alice disappearing down the rabbit hole, not cyphers of angst in a modern age. One gets the impression Tobin would break down his sounds even further into even smaller component parts until it would take a hearing system more advanced than our own to be able to discern what he was doing. And one can't help but feel that Farmer would let her fairies grow even smaller, allowing them to wreak their mischief and havoc on the very genetic material we are made from. Both of them waging war on art's new inner frontiers."
Tessa has been traveling with her fairies to New Orleans. Below she writes of the current collaborative exhibition Lafacadio’s Revenge and her future plans for travel, research and discovery.
She has also had a recent show in London at the Viktor Wynd Fine Art gallery and has shared with us her artist statement and images from that show.
Prose and Images from Tessa Farmer’s Most Recent Work
7/10/11: I find myself on the cusp of an adventurous period of life and work. The fairies and I have had an extremely busy year generating and evolving, but we are exhausted, a little tired of the others' company, and we need new blood. As an obliging host I am about to set the fairies upon New Orleans, in a project with the artists Nina Nicholls and Dana Sherwood. 'Lafcadio's Revenge' will explore and reveal the layers of history and magic upon which the city is built, and I am certain the fairies will not want to leave. However I intend to introduce some into Chile, early next year (2012) where I will undertake field work and research with entomologists from the Natural History Museum, London. I am excited to discover wondrous things in both places, and to witness the evolution of the fairies and their quest for world domination becoming a little closer to being realised."
The Coming of The Fairies (at Viktor Wynd Fine Art, London Sept/Oct 2011)
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The fairies couldn't take the swan by force. It was too large, too powerful. Smaller birds, particularly passerines, are easier to overcome. Using hedgehog spine spears, sea urchin spine clubs, and the stings of captive wasps to kill the creatures, the fairies feast on their flesh and use their feather-light skeletons as flying vessels, hoisted by enslaved beetles and butterflies and bees.
To conquer the swan, which would be more valuable alive, insidious methods were necessary. Parasitic fairies laid their eggs into the corners of the bird's eyes, and the larvae burrowed into its brain, eating non essential tissue, until metamorphosing into adult fairies and taking control of this powerful flying machine. Other fairies laid eggs in its skin, causing tumour like eruptions of protective egg cases enclosing the developing fairy larvae.
Chemicals injected through the fairies' ovipositors into the feathers caused them to grow into delicate cylindrical latticed structures which serve well to encage precious weapons such as parasitoid wasps and small, but deadly snakes. Some of the feather filigree has been plucked from the swan and incorporated into the skull of a sheep which is flown by beetles and butterflies and carries food supplies (insects) contained in the nest of a hornet. The cargo also includes a captured Chilean Rose Tarantula, prized for its ability to flick irritating hairs at potential prey - the fairies encourage this in hunting missions, and skilfully dispatch the distracted animals, sharing the spoils with their pet.
Skull ships and bird skeleton ships make up the rest of the fleet. The ribcages of birds are effective in enclosing aggressive captive insects. Others, used as weapons, such as earwigs and social wasps are tied by their antennae to leg bones and claws. Captive spiders spin silken nets for the fairies, used to capture fast flying, smaller insects.
The fairies command a gang of ants, although their relationship is symbiotic, so they don't need to be imprisoned. The soldier ants, with their large snapping jaws are an excellent first line of defense, and attack, and their smaller sister ants squirt formic acid at enemies or potential prey.
The fairies are coming. Armed, organised and dangerous. Like a column of army ants, they will destroy and devour whatever dares to cross their path.
www.tessafarmer.com

Geraldine Juárez Until the end of this year we’ll be having weekly features on each of our Makers Muse Award Recipients. You’ll read their original writing, see some of their work and glean greater insights into what makes these seven individuals so unique in their fields.
To open our weekly features we have Geraldine Juárez, whose work is focused on the internet and in the street through a wide range of media. Her aim is to understand the spaces that emerge when information, property and power collide, with special interest in low, open and pirate technologies. (You can read her full bio here).
Geraldine’s piece, OCCUPY!, is a timely exploration of how she is viewing, experiencing, framing and taking action within the Occupy Wall Street movement currently taking place worldwide.
Occupy!
by Geraldine Juárez
I often explore the tension around material and immaterial appropriation, tinkering with tools and performing actions that are able to hack and circumvent property systems that I don´t agree with. I learned everything about appropriation during my fellowship in Eyebeam, where I met inspiring people that shared their knowledge and taught me how to make stuff, no matter if it’s art or not. By using methods of hacking one is able to turn infrastructures over and use them to your advantage, creating your own structures.
So yeah. Hacking. We hear all the time about hacker this, hack that...often related only to the paranoia of governments. But we can all be hackers really. And hacking is not only about computers, is about systems. Whether it is a legal, political, urban or art system, if it’s closed I´ll probably be interested in opening it up, even if it’s only a bit. Probably, it is all the fault of a text of McKenzie Wark that I hold dearly:
02. Whatever code we hack, be it programming language, poetic language, math or music, curves or colourings, we create the possibility of new things entering the world. Not always great things, or even good things, but new things. In art, in science, in philosophy and culture, in any production of knowledge where data can be gathered, where information can be extracted from it, and where in that information new possibilities for the world are produced, there are hackers hacking the new out of the old.
Now, it seems so important that I learned how to approach things and situations from a hacker perspective in New York, a place where so much happens, so much property is concentrated and the fight for resources is very evident. Politics, as a constant struggle for resources, it is so evident there.
[caption id="attachment_1745" align="alignleft" width="300"] Forays. Adam Bobbette and Geraldine Juárez. 2008.[/caption]
Funding (not only for the arts) is a fundamental part for creating new infrastructures and part of my work has explored collaborative funding structures. Today, seeing how the OCCUPY movement in New York, around the US (and everywhere) is thriving using collaborative based infrastructures to find a way to reach autonomy I am really thinking how an experiment can actually became a tool. And all these occupations are really super inspiring... So I promise to launch soon this little funding project inspired on all this amazing exercises on decentralization that are happening all over the world and its networks.
As Chris Carlsson says, there is a lot to do, but we are constantly busy with other things that do not let us do the work we need to do. People spend their lives in jobs that are not necessarily work. That is why bankers have jobs where they do something that benefits no one anymore, while the 99% need to work hard to try to get by.
No matter if we are in Mexico, the US or really, anywhere in the world, we are part of the 99%. Solidarity pushes me to preoccupy myself by tinkering and making new models that can help us all imagine how to turn the system against itself to make it a bit more fair, using this amazing opportunity that Kindle Project awarded me to support back.
I occupied downtown New York City for a night on 2008 on the midst of the financial meltdown with Adam Bobbette, my greatest instigator and whom I miss making forays with so much. Maybe, these tools we made can be helpful now for you all.
Using simple tactics we might open up new resources for those who don’t have them and against a world in which everyone is telling us they are so scarce. So, occupy!
Forays with Steam. from forays on Vimeo.
www.simple-mechanisms.com
www.fffff.at

Collaboration Anxiety by Hussein Banai When the initial idea for the theme of Collaboration came up we were looking forward to exploring the positive, innovative and unique collaborations that were inspiring us. Knowing how semantics and language play into our ability to be receptive to a new idea, we were critical of our word choice seeing as how it’s become an overused term. And now, after ten weeks of posts and features on creative collaborations that span the local food movement in San Francisco to the phenomenon of collaborative mourning in Toronto with innovations in creative economy and funding peppered in between, we’re happy we stuck to our guns.
We have indeed tired of the word collaboration but, we’re also thinking more critically about this notion. As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to spread and prisoners are exchanged we’re thinking about collaboration a lot differently than we were ten weeks ago. Fittingly, our last post of this cycle is a philosophical meditation by Brown University scholar, Hussein Banai, who takes us through the pulls and tugs, pushes and vulnerabilities of how our personal freedom interacts with our collaborative natures.
Collaboration Anxiety
by Hussein Banai
Freedom is a delicate condition to contemplate and define but especially compelling to experience. It is, as Isaiah Berlin remarked, “a sacred, untouchable value” inextricably bound up with the totality of our social existence. In this sense, freedom – or ‘liberty’, as political theorists would prefer it – is a social value with visible (and consequential) political and legal boundaries, and as such it is formed in relation to, and is constitutive of, what the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called the habitus, that complex, somewhat incoherent amalgam of practices deriving habit (i.e. the boundaries of one’s liberties) from inhabitance (i.e. rules, norms, and rights).
But in a very acute sense freedom is also an existential condition experienced in solitude, as in when one feels free to have reached a mountaintop or to have explored the far seas. Freedom in this sense signifies the exaltations felt at not being with others in the communal habitation; indeed, it entails departure from particular habits.
Yet, in either case, we must ask under what condition(s) is an individual actually free? How does one surmount the seemingly thumping weight of social life without falling into the ethereal condition of loneliness? What is worth observing or holding on to about freedom given its myriad configurations between the extremes of impersonal social rules and norms on the one hand, and the often-taciturn affirmations of solitude on the other? Does freedom have any intrinsic attributes? What constitutes freedom?
In a world seemingly burdened by unequal relations of power in perpetuity, the question of freedom touches very significantly upon markers of identity. One’s social class, gender, religion, ethnicity, political beliefs, and even personal appetites, it would seem, are cause for (in)voluntary membership in corresponding groups and formal organizations either aggrieved or overjoyed by the level of representation in the society at large. In this sense, regardless of our enthusiasm for, or rate of participation in, such movements, we each are implicated in the discourse advanced about the limits and possibilities of our freedom. We are collaborators in the parade of fluff and horribles bandied about us.
This may at first sound like a decidedly deterministic and, indeed, dispiriting perspective. But the sobering reality of life in a society of diverse and intersecting identities needn’t detain us. Collaboration can entail either partnership or collusion – one can either be a willing participant in determining the shape of things to come, or passively carry on affirming the validity of settled customs. In either case, the authorization of a particular course of action – i.e. of being the author of one’s activities in society – rests with the self, conditioned though it certainly will be by the vicissitudes of context.
To endorse the idea of collaboration as partnership, therefore, would be to view the possibilities of one’s freedom beyond the arbitrary and oft-constraining boundaries of identity. It would mean embracing the difficult ironies involved in simultaneously putting forward a solid sense of self and doubting the bases of its coherence. More importantly, it would entail constantly striving for authenticity – to take full ownership of one’s thoughts and actions in relation to those of others.
There are a few principal ways in which authenticity as a quality or an idea seems essential to the experience of freedom so essential to collaboration as partnership. First, there is the experience of a departure from, or of a rupture in, communal identity, whereby authenticity attests to the unique quality of the action performed. For instance, of Gandhi’s campaign of non-violent civil disobedient against the British we say that it was only he who could have produced it (and hence be responsible for it), given his authentic mode of reflective engagement with friend and foe alike, his intellect, and his ability to forge meaningful partnership with others; as of course we would say in different realms of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Einstein’s E=MCô, Roger Federer’s backhand, or Aung San Suu Kyi’s sacrifices for democracy in Myanmar. Then there is the notion of authenticity as approximating an organic, real, or original experience, as in when one reaches the summit of Everest in person, no longer marveling at the view or the experience from one’s living room.
Between these two very different modes of authenticity, a vast range of possibilities, puzzles, and concerns immediately opens out. Are certain collaborative acts slightly more/less free than others, given the tenuous relationship between context and identity? Are certain expressions of freedom more determined historically or sociologically than others, and depending on their magnitude, how do they influence other actions? For after all, as Lionel Trilling once observed, “we [humans] are creatures of time, we are creatures of the historical sense…[and so] we have the sense of the past and must live with it, and by it.”
In other words, if the reasons offered up by a given collaboration are so wrapped up in existing circumstances and have come about as a result of events preceding them, then what sense is there to speak of free will and indeterminism? The added advantage of thinking about collaboration as perpetually torn between the difficulties associated with partnership and the comforts promised by collusion is to recognize and come to terms with the range of irreducible anxieties attached to our sense of freedom. For to be free is to act on the basis of reasons, which may or may not always be accessible, but can nevertheless, as the example of Gandhi shows, be discovered, reframed, and rearticulated so as to create new possibilities and avenues of action. Just as there was nothing historically determined about the discovery of the New World, slavery, the advent of the atomic bomb, or the Holocaust, so there is nothing historically determined today about the circumstances that condition our endorsement of attitudes and actions – i.e. of collaborations – in our name.
Hussein Banai is a Lecturer and Visiting Scholar at the Political Theory Project, Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Kindle Project in the Media: Arts and Philanthropy Interview New Formula: Arts philanthropy goes grassroots
Article originally published in the Santa Fe Reporter on October 19, 2011
by Ellen Berkovitch
Editor's note: Ellen Berkovitch publishes the arts and culture website adobeairstream.com.
Long ago, “friend” was a noun and “city” was a location: Santa Fe, at the weary end of the Santa Fe Trail, from which dusty travelers launched the ambitious start of cultural tourism some 75 years ago.
Then, last decade, new monikers began cropping up concerning cities. Who’s Your City?, a book written by socio-urbanist Richard Florida (of Toronto), unpacked his thesis of a “creative class” dominating global cities—workers in so-called creative professions, from art to film to physics, localizing effects of tolerance and self-expression to seed new-society economies.
The thinking that places characterized by creativity and tolerance also have futurist economies isn’t new. Even a decade ago, this proposition felt palpable compared, say, to the plight of Rust Belt factory workers selling backyard “pets or meat” in Michael Moore movies.
Then the recession came. Today, to pessimists, it may seem that “creative city,” “creative class” and “cultural entrepreneur” are just slogans. (In a controversial Oct. 1 essay for Salon, Scott Timberg goes a step further, arguing that the creative class is, in fact, “a lie.”) However, in the arena of federal arts policy, these terms embody platforms that marry new action to newspeak.
“Creative placemaking,” the latest coinage to emerge, is described as animating and rejuvenating existing neighborhoods, celebrating diversity and cultivating inspiration. It’s a new concept of civics, which puts arts at the nexus of social and economic development in cities—a civics that relies increasingly on grassroots creativity, mobilization and funding.
It should come as no surprise that the old days, in which federal funders and brand-name philanthropy got behind art and built it into cities, are over; that shade was half-drawn even before the recession.
The National Endowment for the Arts is a shadow of its once-self, running off a puny $155 million annual budget (with a $20 million additional cut recently proposed). Between 2009 and 2010, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada slashed their arts funding respectively by 34, 25 and 36 percent. In New Mexico, the decrease was 11 percent, to $1.96 million (this after 42,000 New Mexico jobs were lost in the third quarter of 2009, the worst year here since 1942).
Former Museum of New Mexico Foundation Director Tom Aageson, who runs a nonprofit, the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship, calls Gov. Susana Martinez’ proposal of a formal merger between the $42 million-a-year Department of Cultural Affairs and the $14 million-a-year Tourism Department “a mistake.”
Foundations have taken a licking, too—and not just over the past three years. As long ago as 2002, the Getty Research Institute reported foundation endowments were in even worse shape than after the 1929 stock market crash.
Read the full article after the jump, including the interview with Kindle Project Co-Director, Sadaf Cameron
Since 2010, however, two distinct arts funding initiatives have marched off the federal and private-sector collaborative fields: respectively Our Town and ArtPlaceAmerica. These exemplify the latest linguistic leaps in turning “creative” into a verb: “creative placemaking.”
Just as at the beginning of any new movement, much effort goes to understanding beyond the slogans and into the meaning.
In a June blog post, “Postcard from the Future of the City,” NEA Senior Deputy Director Joan Shigekawa reported on a global city symposium in Chicago.
Shigekawa culled out points made by the keynote speaker, UK researcher John Holden. Holden critiqued American cultural policy as being myopic and offered that the view needed expansion into “three spheres where culture happens”: the funded, the commercial and the “homemade.”
“He believes that, if you don’t look at all three spheres, you’re missing a lot,” Shigekawa wrote.
NEA spokeswoman Victoria Hutter was also present, and amplifies: “One of the ideas woven through creative placemaking is you’re leveraging local assets, taking a look at what’s around you and building from there. It’s not finding some empty land, putting a performing arts center on it and calling it ‘creative placemaking.’ It’s more organic than that.”
Only a decade ago, viral urban ethos was that global cities needed to invest in creative infrastructure, meaning new museums and symphony halls, to run in the cultural stakes. (Denver will open a new one, the Clyfford Still Museum, Nov. 18.)
But consider what’s happened since: The latest cultural participation numbers describe only 22.7 percent of Americans going to museums in 2008, and only 9 percent to classical music performances or plays.
On Oct. 10, a Huffington Post headline, “Arts Funding Is Supporting a Wealthy, White Audience,” scooped a report by the Washington, DC-based watchdog group National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. The report says foundations are serving a “shrinking” but mostly “white, wealthy” audience while overlooking poorer, ethnically diverse communities.
The NCRP in essence takes umbrage with the word “institutions” when it says, per Huffington’s article, “Current arts funding patterns have roots that date back to the 19th century…Early cultural philanthropists focused on building institutions to preserve the Western European high arts to validate America’s position as a world power and serve an elite audience.” In other words, what’s wrong with old models is that the concept of “audience” has changed dramatically.
Correspondingly, the new language of funders redresses a void in cultural “vibrancy”—the cultural qualities embedded in neighborhoods and cities. So by applying “intensity”—a synonym for deep, targeted investment—to creative pockets within neighborhoods and depressed cities, funders seek to oxygenate local fires and stoke vibrant culture from within.
Carol Coletta is president of ArtPlace America, an initiative of foundations, banks and federal agencies. Her thesis sounds like Florida’s: “ArtPlace is operating off a theory of change that goes like this: To succeed economically, communities need human capital. To attract human capital is important, but if you don’t retain it, you don’t reap the benefit of your investment.”
“Quality of place” is the key component of that success—and, she says, can be retrofitted, provided there’s potential for vibrancy. Coletta cites Detroit as a case in point, where evidence of “momentum” (in the direction of vibrancy) finds a three-block part of that economically harrowed city an arena of “intensity” for ArtPlace America.
“We didn’t just invest [in Detroit]; we invested three times there, in three different initiatives, all within three blocks of one another,” Coletta says.
While ArtPlace allows that “there are possibly 1,000 different ways to produce [vibrancy] outcomes,” one thing is nonnegotiable, Coletta says: “Art and artists cannot be secondary or ancillary or brought to the table later. We expect them to be there from the first.”
In Our Town grants administered by the NEA (which is a partner in ArtPlace, but not a funder), Fort Collins, Colo.—a city investing in a “Rocky Mountain Regional Arts Incubator to assist professional artists and students as they develop their careers”—won $100,000 this July. Fort Collins asserts it’s the first city in the interior West to do such a thing.
But across the country, the shape of arts philanthropy—and of the cultural landscape generally—has already shifted.
The internet’s evolution into a largely social space has empowered people to prioritize their values in the philanthropic dollars they give directly. More and more, we the people are expressing that clout: Giving USA found that, of $291 billion in total philanthropy in 2010, individuals gave 71 percent of philanthropic dollars and foundations just 14 percent. (Arts-related giving accounted for an estimated 11 percent share of the total.)
Even as the new cultural economy moves toward downsizing (if not eliminating) the institutional middleman, nonprofits continue to proliferate: Some 3,000 new arts nonprofits were created from 2007-2009, according to Americans for the Arts USA’s National Arts Index page.
They’re all competing for scarcer money. Crowdsourced, online microfunding (crowdfunding, for short) includes Kickstarter, the “largest funding platform for creative projects in the world,” and the up-and-coming United States Artists. Kickstarter—which deals exclusively in projects that are “the independent creation of someone like you”—has exceeded $20 million in creative project support; creators keep 100 percent ownership and control of their projects.
Kickstarter and US Artists are both all-or-nothing deals; you only cash out if you meet or exceed 100 percent of a funding goal. Kickstarter founder Perry Chen attributes this to certain basics in which creating “mini-economies around project ideas” also forces artists to offer concrete deliverables—from “cool stuff” to “experiences.”
Locally, these ideas have crystallized into projects. Kickstarter has helped fund, among others, the Santa Fe Reporter AHA Festival and Progressive Arts Fair, a community music and art blast at the Railyard in September; SFR columnist Dani Katz’ book; and Albuquerque artist Naomi Natale’s One Million Bones, which had a goal of $25,000.
Artists’ resourcefulness may be the one historical factor amid all this “new.” In 2004, research by Grantmakers in the Arts found that 63 percent of artists in the US earned less than $7,000 a year from their art, so even a few thousand dollars can be terrifically meaningful.
Those dollars are “sacred,” Joel Fleishman, co-author of Give Smart, a new book on philanthropy, avers—and as such, Fleishman told PBS in September, reflect Americans’ personal human values more than ever.
In effect, that involvement confers expertise on all of us—not only in terms of choosing which projects to support, but also in choosing organizations through which we allow our dollars to flow.
But the newly fragmented philanthropic model also presents a problem: “In any typical city, there are 50 organizations trying to do the same thing,” Fleishman told PBS.
On the national level, “There’s a real understanding among the more sophisticated and progressive end that, if you want cultural vitality, you invest in makers—period,” Jan Brooks says.
That duplication of effort is especially pronounced here. Jan Brooks, a longtime consultant to organized philanthropy and a mentor connecting artists to money around the country, takes a historical view of what she considers embedded impediments to a thriving, grounds-up cultural practice: Santa Fe has too many institutions, and many of them are out of sync with the zeitgeist.
“We have a geezer problem,” Brooks states, bluntly.
As a result, Brooks says, Santa Fe has continually missed the ferry on seeding grassroots culture.
While nobody imagines that Santa Fe’s present or future assets would exclude art galleries, museums and destination events such as the Santa Fe Opera, Brooks says the city’s reluctance to confer priority of place on “makers”—those whose creative activities are the cultural assets—is a missed opportunity.
For instance, portions of the Railyard shine with Santa Fe’s “homemade” treasures: urban farming, an artists market, live music and transportation, as well as galleries and SITE Santa Fe. Still, pockets of vacant land remain. Brooks says those properties (managed by the city-contracted Railyard Community Corporation) haven’t fallen far enough in price to provide a real opportunity to retrofit grassroots creativity. Instead, the city found $100,000 to support the nonprofit Creative Santa Fe, which in Brooks’ view has accomplished zero—and is a case in point for the drawbacks of putting “creative” into institutional hands.
“Imagine that they’d spent that $100,000 in 10, $10,000 grants to artists—what new things we might be seeing,” Brooks says.
For instance, one of Creative Santa Fe’s 2011 actions includes becoming a fiscal sponsor for the Santa Fe Artists’ Studio Tour—which already existed. Further, on Oct. 6, Creative Santa Fe previewed a “major new initiative” that, according to a news release, “is envisioned as a world-class conference and arts and cultural festival to be held annually in the fall in Santa Fe.”
The festival has been rumored to resemble a think tank, along the lines of Colorado’s Aspen Institute. Whether this amounts to duplication, albeit on a richer scale, is hard to predict until a formal announcement is made, but culture watchers like Brooks stress that, in general, top-down approaches, even in programmatic terms, are increasingly outmoded.
As funding and creative models become increasingly democratized, traditional categories of business can also innovate creative placemaking.
Twelve miles outside the city, Destiny Allison is a working artist and real estate entrepreneur—co-owner, with Steve Ewers, of La Tienda at Eldorado, where they’ve built “access” into the business plan to seed creative economy at the shopping center.
It emerged out of patently hostile ground: The shopping center “was a hated project,” Allison notes, smiling, when she and Ewers bought it in 2008 for “cents on the dollar.”
Applying the ideal of “empowering artists” to the reasoning of real estate based in community, Allison opened a permanent exhibit gallery, La Tienda Exhibit Space), at the shopping center (tagline: “Where Community Happens”).
It’s a 2,000-square-foot space with an approximately $54,000 annual market value (which she and Ewers donate) and is located right across the hall from Destiny Allison Fine Art, the center’s anchor tenant. Artists apply to exhibit at the community gallery (now taking applications for 2013). The exhibitors keep 100 percent of their sales, and Allison mentors them in goal-setting, publicity, hanging shows, etc.
Allison explains that artists show in groups 90 percent of the time. Because the crowdsourcing model also pertains to pulling in a crowd, 500-600 people regularly show up for openings—and work has sold every time.
It’s not a model built on jurying “quality” in, and Allison admits that some shows have been “uneven.” But creative community making has proved a boon to business, too: Six months after the gallery opened, in mid-2010, the center had 16 tenants and just 4 vacancies. The School of the Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet recently signed a five-year lease at La Tienda.
“The Exhibit Space has done nothing but good for the businesses—and the artists,” Allison says. “It’s a never-done-before business model. I’ve searched.”
La Tienda has also become a patron of the arts, buying a work out of every show in order to build a collection.This leads back to a creative placemaking project that was an invited, first-cycle grantee of ArtPlace America: a Lakota gift shop in Pine Ridge, SD, which not only exhibits Lakota art, but buys up to $100,000 of it each year.
We don’t need the elderly, which includes me, teaching people who make things ‘entrepreneurialism,’” longtime art consultant Jan Brooks says, “Entrepreneurialism has been taught to us, as exemplified by the DIY movement and Kickstarter.”
In other corners of the city’s creative landscape, DIY-style arts funding is thriving.
In 2009, MIX Santa Fewas born. The monthly networking event eventually acquired a definitive purpose: crowdsourcing in order to add diverse voices to the city’s cultural, economic and policy Babel. From the first, city Economic Development Specialist Kate Noble says, MIX’s goal was “to bring up community assets” and to attract the younger talent to articulate and personify them.
With that in mind, in early 2010, attendees were handed rainbow-colored Post-its and markers with which to answer a single question: “What’s the F@&king Problem?”
The best answer, veteran MIXmaster (and SFR columnist) Zane Fischer says, came from After Hours Alliance coordinator Shannon Murphy—who in turn used Kickstarter to raise money for the AHA Festival.
Last October, Kickstarter founder Perry Chen told The Economist, “We focus on a middle ground between patronage and commerce.”
MIX now happens every third Thursday, February through November. Last month, in a principle that has persisted since the beginning (answer questions; get a drink), MIXers visionized the future of Santa Fe’s arts scene. Attendees’ ideas sound a lot like what national funders are putting into words: They want a city that’s more “diverse” and “urban,” with “more variety, less ‘old-people’ music”; artists empowered to monetize via new vehicles, not just commercial galleries; and a nightlife scene, replete with a live music venue, which extends past 9:30 pm, at the Railyard.
If MIX has been a “grassroots effort,” it has also been an incubator, orchestrating not only friendships and hookups (which, face it, Noble says, help make Santa Fe a lovable city for young people) but also business opportunities.
MIX is now collaborating with the city and other groups to make St. Michael’s Drive the next laboratory for grassroots arts as a fulcrum of social and economic development.
Draft design guidelines have emerged from the city’s Land Use Department and are being shopped to business owners along the St. Michael’s Drive commercial corridor [SFReporter.com, Aug. 11: “Open House Shows St. Mike’s Vision”]. Later this month, the Long-Range Planning Division (part of the city’s Housing and Community Development Department) will host an invite-only meeting with those landowners. Fischer says lessons learned at the Railyard about barriers between public space and neighborhoods might, in this next instance, have an opportunity to evolve further.
“It’s not going to happen perfectly,” he says, “but it can happen better.”
Other small-scale, local microfunding projects are also at work in Santa Fe—in part because, when Chief Curator Irene Hofmann arrived for her new job at SITE Santa Fe last year, supporting artists directly was firmly on her mind.
“I recognized a need for SITE to be more involved in the creative community here, and more supportive,” Hofmann explains.
SPREAD, the outgrowth of that support, is a local tentacle of a national octopus: community dinners with one-syllable names like FEAST, STOCK or STEW, which fund art out of a micro-pot gathered over a meal.
Here, the community dinner is promoted and run by SITE, which puts together a panel to preselect eight artist contestants for each SPREAD; $15-$20 tickets at the door create a purse. At the end of the night—and the dinner (involving presentations by the artists)—a popular vote (an in-person crowdsourcing) decides the winner.
In April, at the first SPREAD, arts collective Meow Wolf took home the $7,700 moneybags—and finished work on The Due Return, popularly known as “the ship,” which became an art installation-cum-lounge for a huge variety of community activities at the Center for Contemporary Arts from May through August. (Meow Wolf also conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign.) The second SPREAD occurs Oct. 28.
Unlike its peers, the key to SPREAD is that it’s the product of a cultural institution like SITE (in effect, a national anchor privileging local innovation). SITE, in the last six months, also created a SPREAD website (design and development by local firm Anagr.am), which serves as both application process and archive of past projects.
And the crowd fund? “If we’re able to fund two artists’ projects a year at $7,000-$8,000, that’s huge,” Hofmann says.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the creative markers of a place, the pressure cuff is building for us to sort out our homegrown “assets” and make more of them—a task that Santa Fe cannot afford not to do.
I end this story with a few words about me: I am a writer, a journalist and a creative entrepreneur with a three-year-old new media company and a daily online art magazine: adobeairstream.com.
I’ve been here 19 years. I was paying attention when Richard Florida not all that long ago postulated we could become a creative “super-region.” I believed it, and I bought in. Hopefully, you will too. SFR
Asset Activism
Sadaf Rassoul Cameron comes at philanthropy from having started as an artist, and her focus is on connecting innovators in art and social/economic justice with money—without the cumbersome reporting requirements of yore.
Cameron, the young executive director of Kindle Projects (launched in 2008 in Santa Fe) earned her BFA in photography from the College of Santa Fe (now the Santa Fe University of Art and Design). After photo-documenting Afghan refugee camps for her thesis, Cameron began “thinking about arts from a social justice framework.”
Kindle Projects, which is funded by a single anonymous donor, gave away some $500,000 this year. And what is totally unusual, possibly even revolutionary about Kindle, is not the part that there’s no formal application (many philanthropies identify their projects privately), but that there’s no onerous reporting required.
Kindle gives artists flat $13,000 gifts, Cameron explains. “Our approach is, ‘Here’s the money; we want to empower and uplift you in your work, and this is the mechanism.’”
Cameron cites the example of Eliza Naranjo-Morse, who used her $13,000 gift to put a shipping container on her northern New Mexico land as a permanent art studio. “If artists today are ‘starving artists,’ it’s because they’re willing to be—to farm the land, to grow their food,” Cameron says.
A Kindle seed-sovereignty grantee in Taos used the money to buy a computer, video camera and audio gear—all long-term assets with which to communicate.
“How to give assets that lend to sustainability is something that funders [across the country] are not really looking at,” Cameron says. “Artists should shine in their resourcefulness, imagination and creativity—in thinking outside the box, even in fundraising,” she explains. “We live in such a time of need and global collapse. Systems are changing. Everything is changing.”

Kickstarter: Microphilathropy and Community Building
Surely, many of you have heard of Kickstarter and likely have interacted with it in some way. As funders, the Kickstarter movement is of great interest to us. It’s a worthy example of how a little can go a long way, build community and realize people’s creative ambitions. Kickstarter promotes itself as a “New way to fund and follow creativity.” It allows for project creators (artists, filmmakers, writers, designers etc.) to raise funds to support their projects. Recently, we were fortunate enough to have a dialog with Kickstarter’s Communications Director, Justin Kazmark.
Our conversation began with Justin candidly describing the genesis of Kickstarter, which all originated in 2002 when one of Kickstarter’s founder’s Perry Chen wanted to test the market for a creative project before launching it. Six years later Chen had two other partners, a developer and a firm idea, with the site having it’s debut in April of 2009.
Beautiful Trouble. A project that received it's full funding yesterday.
As Justin described, Kickstarter launched right at the beginning of the economic downturn. Since then we’ve all witnessed continued economic volatility. “Now, Kickstarter is the largest funding platform in the world with more than $100 million being pledged in just two and a half years.” With this online model seemingly small dreams are coming true and micro communities are being generated with creative projects as their nexus point.
The project creators who use Kickstarter often find themselves inadvertently creating community through their Kickstarter pages. Justin described the phenomenon of “serial backers” of Kickstarter projects. Even amongst the staff at Kickstarter offices there are those that support multiple projects. Much like the way Shannon Simmons (Barter Babes project) describes the accidental community she’s created through her alternative way of engaging with economy, people involved with Kickstarter are finding the same results. Even for those projects whose goals aren’t met, Justin notes that they often have created a community of followers and supporters despite not having raised their funds. Having a community on board with the purpose of the project gives natural fuel and motivation for the project creator, often having successful outcomes in the networks they’ve built.
Justin described this as a natural community building process: “Building community around the project is a big part of it. Many project creators feel this is more important than the money itself – it’s about connecting one on one with people that could be your supporters and at the end of the project the creator has a very real sense of who their community is.” In our minds, this is why Kickstarter is unique – it goes beyond funding and exchange of money, and is tangibly helping to build creative movements. Additionally, it goes both ways, because as Justin notes, the majority of backers are part of an existing community with the project creator, but often times it’s a lot of strangers who end up pledging to a project they believe in. This kind of altruistic giving seems to be addictive for project backers, because out of the more than 1 million people that have made pledges 150,000 of them have backed multiple projects. Impressive.
Kickstarter’s distinctiveness stems from relationship building and the innovative way in which reciprocity is naturally built into their platform. For every pledge that is made to a project a reward is given back to the person who pledged. The pledge rewards can range from a digital download for a $3 pledge to an invitation to Morocco to sit in on a recording sessions for $2000 pledge and endless examples of rewards in between. This funding structure not only allows the backer to feel empowered in sharing in the progress of the project, but also receives something tangible back. This is the kind of clever community building that can come about from smart, complementary, and realistic funding structures.
A current favorite Kickstarter project. Megumi Sasaki's second film.
Kickstarter is really at the intersection of commerce and patronage. Justin says that more than anything, “they want to help see creative ideas come to life. Back in the day, for example, the Medici (family) supported the arts philanthropically. Kickstarter empowers users to help on a small level. When a project creator launches a project the first thing they do is get the word out to family, friends, personal networks and people want to lend their support because they believe in them. Some support because of mass appeal and they want the reward.”
Kickstarter has always been about helping creative projects and Justin describes this as a response to what the founders saw in their friends and communities at the time of the project’s inception. “It’s a perennial problem – there is no way to fund creative ideas. Kickstarter is very much about getting individual creative projects to life.” It’s a very simple initiative in some ways, with very specific categories that are accepted in their project proposals. “There is nothing ambiguous about this”, Justin says. He attributes their success in large part to the clear definition that is required from the project creators. "There is an encouragement for project creators to get in front of the camera and articulate what it is they want – this brings authenticity and a genuine approach to raising funds.” This is precisely what we find so compelling about their model. It’s unabashedly personal and as such artists, filmmakers, writers and other creative folk are getting funding for their dreams, because they are making their dreams known.
After having had the opportunity to chat with Justin our fervor for supporting grassroots funding movements only increases. We want creative individuals to find seed money to make the projects of their dreams. Some members of the greater Kindle community have had wonderful success with Kickstarter and we hope they continue to. It is initiatives like these that will help to bring creative power back into the hands of the creators themselves.

Flightpath Toronto How can a public spectacle help to shape our ideas of how we interact with nature, space and cities? Can it really offer a tangible route for creative alternatives to transportation, civic engagement and an investment in how we live with a less harmful impact on the natural world? These questions have been on my mind for years, and in the context of Kindle Project, it has recently become relevant. As we set out to explore the most current incarnations of unique collaborative efforts on the blog these past two months, we came across one such effort that got our attention. Flightpath Toronto took place on October 1 as a part of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, where for one sleepless night the city was transformed by hundreds of artists for the sixth annual sunset-to-sunrise celebration of contemporary art.
Flightpath Toronto was the main event of this year’s Nuit Blanche. “A mass-participation spectacle inviting citizens to rediscover the possibilities and wonder of urban flight, with interactive lasers & hundreds of flying members of the public.” (Source: Usman’s Haque’s site).
[caption id="attachment_1686" align="alignleft" width="225"] A slide from the press night for Flightpath. This image was also displayed during the spectacle itself.[/caption]
According to Usman Haque and Natalie Jeremijenko, the artists behind Flightpath, the purpose of this piece had a few layers. There was the obvious wonder, whimsy, and playfulness of having the opportunity to strap on giant wings and zip across city hall while voice-activated lasers danced around the entire square. In addition, the purposeful creation of a collective memory had its place within Flightpath. There were also the conceptual, deeper layers of this spectacle’s purpose. At the press night for Flightpath, both artists spoke humbly and passionately about the installation’s vision – to reimagine our relationships to natural systems.
Jeremijenko believes that reimagining our relationships with natural systems is the biggest concern of our century. “Air is the medium we pollute the most…now is a good time to start thinking about how we (can) reimagine air space.” Haque’s inspiration for the piece, stemming from watching birds occupy and fly around the city square in 2010, led him to invite Jeremijenko into this collaboration. The two of them share a fascination with flight and Jeremijenko’s previous work has already begun to explore this notion. The relationships that humans have to birds and flight can, according to these artists, affect how we imagine city transit. By reclaiming the wonder of flight, she seems convinced that health will improve due to better air quality from the lesser dependency on oil fueled transit.
[caption id="attachment_1687" align="alignleft" width="300"] Casey Wong doing some last minute tests the night before Nuit Blanche[/caption]
I had the opportunity to get a little behind the scenes action for Flightpath Toronto. This very expensive city commissioned and funded installation took over the central square outside of city hall and took a year of dreaming, international planning, lobbying, rendering, drafting, designing and constructing across three countries. Kindle friend, Casey Wong, was one of the design geniuses. Fabricator and site worker he helped bring this bizarre spectacle into fruition. Seeing Casey render various incarnations of wings both big and small, while trying to be in touch with artists in other countries was a mini-spectacle in itself. I often wondered if this massive collaborative undertaking would even get completed. It did, and in Casey’s opinion, part of the success of the project is that it came into being at all. Similarly, Haque described it as being “the most complicated project he’s ever worked on.”
Speaking with Casey the night before Nuit Blanche as he tinkered with wings, glue, lights, and foil we talked about the possible effects of this installation on the city. Casey, like Jeremijenko, really felt that by bringing play, flight and joy into the city square, participants would have the opportunity to imagine what various modes of transport could look like in our cities. Imaginative as I am, I wondered as well. But what about the other thousands of people who passed through the square that night? Would they get the same ideas? Jeremijenko’s past works have often had to do with flight and the ideas around our human fascination with it. At the press night for Flightpath she spoke with such conviction that zip lines were a very real and possible avenue for urban transit. As I stood at the impressive installation, enthralled by graceful and slow moving humans flying above me, I had to wonder, if I hadn’t heard the artists speak to the conceptual backgrounds would I have been as intrigued?
Collaborations like these are striking and in my highest aspiration whimsy would bring about creative social change…but after this weekend I am left with more questions than answers. How can artists like these make their imaginations of cities real to the public? Can public spectacles encourage lasting imagination in city-dwellers? Once we imagine new ways of interacting how do we implement these ideas? At the crossroads of arts, science, spectacle and imagination is experiencing a whimsical evening enough to keep us engaged? I suppose Fligthpath did its job… almost a week later and my mind is still reeling in confusion and wonderment.
Photo Source for Flightpath Toronto image: http://www.demotiximages.com

Announcement of 2011 Makers Muse Recipients In its third year, the Makers Muse program continues to honor artists working in all mediums and forms: traditional and experimental, classic and contemporary. The award supports artists and their work in the various stages of process.
With diverse articulations, including whimsical stop motion animation, prolific photography, sculptures of macabre fairies, grotesquely innovative video games, intuitive Arabic street art, post apocalyptic installations of grit and humor, and the creative preservation of immigrant music - this year’s recipients do nothing short of impress and motivate.
From all over the world and a wide array of disciplines it our pleasure to announce the recipients of this years Makers Muse award.

Apple Bans 'Phone Story' App (CNN) -- The maker of a mobile game highlighting the uglier side of electronics production has seen the game banned from Apple's App Store just hours after its release.
By Doug Gross, CNN
Published on September 14, 2011 here.
The creators of "Phone Story" describe it as a game that "attempts to provoke a critical reflection on its own technological platform."
According to the developer's website, the game involves a player in cartoon versions of real-world scenarios involving mineral mining in the Congo, the reported suicides of workers at an Apple manufacturer's plant in China, the "planned obsolescence" of tech gadgets and the resulting environmental impact.
As the most profitable consumer-electronics company in the world, Apple has been front and center of discussions about all of those issues.
Paolo Pedercini, the game's Italian developer, posted a blog item on his Twitter feed Tuesday announcing the app had been pulled under the header "Phone Story RIP (13/09/2011 - 13/09/2011)."
He said Apple cited sections of its guidelines that ban apps that depict violence or abuse toward children, "excessively objectionable or crude content" or paid apps that solicit donations to causes.
The game's website says proceeds go to workers' groups and other nonprofit organizations.
In response, Pedercini said he's planning a new app that "depicts the violence and abuse of children involved in the electronic manufacturing supply chain in a noncrude and nonobjectionable way."
Apple's response was succinct.
"We removed this app from the App Store because it violates its developer guidelines," said Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr. Neumayr would not elaborate and didn't confirm or deny that the sections Pedercini cited are correct.
The game is still available for $1 in the Android Market.
It's not the first time Apple has been embroiled in controversies over electronics production (which, in fairness, are the same for many manufacturers of computers, phones and other gadgets).
Wired magazine, for one, has taken a close look at conditions at the Foxconn factory in China that makes iPhones.
The report describes nets strung around the building after a rash of worker suicides.
Amnesty International and other organizations have decried the way coltan, a mineral necessary for mobile phones, is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- where there are reports of bloody violence to control the coltan trade and deadly conditions for workers held in slavelike conditions.
One Amnesty documentary calls it "Blood Coltan," comparing the mineral to the "blood diamonds" mined in some African nations.
And environmental groups such as Greenpeace have blasted Apple's environmental impact, saying its products contain hazardous chemicals and their short life spans have led to massive waste.
On its site, Apple lists "supplier responsibility" actions it takes to ensure "the highest standards of social responsibility wherever our products are made."
"We insist that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes," the page says.
Apple's site says it regularly audits the companies it partners with and works with those firms to make improvements when needed.

iPhone App About Apple's Rotten Supply Chain Gets Past Censors
Molleindustria partnered with the Yes Labs to create Phone Story, an iPhone app that teaches players about abuses in the life-cycle of the iPhone by putting them in the manufacturers' shoes. To win, players must enslave children in Congolese mines, catch suicidal workers jumping out of Chinese assembly plant windows, and conscript the poorest of the world's poor to dismantle toxic e-waste resulting from obsolete phones. Below is the write up about this brilliantly crafty app from the Yes Labs website.
How would you like to force children to mine precious metals, save suicidal workers from jumping to their deaths so they can labor another day, or find the cheapest way to dispose of mountains of e-waste—all while keeping productivity up so you can toss shiny trinkets to adoring consumers? Each of the levels of "Phone Story," the newly released iPhone app from Molleindustria (with some help from the Yes Lab), contains a mini-game exploring a different problem in the consumer electronics supply chain. Players of the first anti-iPhone iPhone game are placed in the digital shoes of forces within the lifespan of a smartphone—from Coltan mines in the Congo to e-waste facilities all over the developing world. It's a simplified virtual tour of a world that doesn’t want to be changed.
Phone Story is available in the iTunes store for 99 cents. All revenues will go directly to organizations helping to put a stop to the horrors that smartphone production causes.

The Barter Babes Project
Bartering is something we’ve talked about on the blog before. It’s one example of a contemporary use for one of the oldest kinds of economy, based in mutualism, that we are very interested in. It may seem like an odd juxtaposition – for funders to be interested in bartering – but for us it’s an essential piece to exploring alternative economic systems in a time of economic volatility. One of the opportunities we have as funders is sharing financial resources with our grantees. In return, we receive invaluable education and awareness around crucial issues through our relationship with the community we support. Sometimes we have the good fortune of being able to connect partners with one another and in turn we see movements around social and environmental justice progress steadily forward.
These kinds of collaborative relationships are what drive us in our work and we’re taking notice of others who are utilizing the collaborative barter model in interesting ways. One such person is Shannon Simmons, who I first heard about at a summer party. Some women at the party chatted about a seemingly too-good-to-be-true urban legend: A mysterious sounding woman who barters excellent financial advice in exchange for just about anything she finds herself needing. With one quick Google search I found her. Shannon Simmons, the financial consultant who started the project Barter Babes about a year ago, was in fact real and very available. I had the opportunity to barter with her this summer and was so impressed I subsequently decided to interview her for our blog.
Full disclosure: my finances are not what you would call “in order.” I’ve often longed for some serious financial advice, but everybody I spoke to wanted to charge me upwards of $200 an hour. I was intimidated and even enraged at times when old men would want to rob me and then judge me because, as they would say I live, “like an artist.” Sensitive, I know – but after speaking with Shannon I realized I was not alone in my fears.
According to Shannon’s research, which she conducted for two years prior to launching her project, she found that, “there’s a huge gap of information especially with women between the ages of 20-35. Even if they have the information, there’s a lack of confidence in how to put that information to work.” I was her target woman.
Her project is simple: Shannon had been wanting out of the corporate world for sometime. As a very successful woman in the finance world she was rapidly tiring of her high profile clients and their fears during the crash of the economy. She thought, “If these people are afraid of losing one million and they still have five left in the bank, what must all the other regular people be going through?” As any good financial planner would do, Shannon saved. She saved enough money to pay her rent and phone bill for one year and then quit her job. Barter Babes was born. Her project mission, though ambitious was simple. Give financial advice to 300 women in exchange for goods, services, food, garden tools, just about anything she might need. 300 barters in one year. And now, ten months into her project she has completed her goal.
Before meeting Shannon, I was skeptical. How could a woman younger than me, (she’s 26!) who isn’t making any money be able to give me useful advice about my financial life. Skeptical but desperate, I kept the appointment and did the homework assignments she gave me. A few weeks later we met in her home and she presented me with a clear and easy to manage map of my financial life. In exchange, for what felt like gold, I gave her my favorite book about clean beauty and some raw, organic coconut oil, both from a local Toronto shop whose owner also contacted Shannon. That’s it. Granted, I did have the feeling like I’d robbed her blind, but she insisted it felt like a fair exchange because she felt valued for what she’d shared.
“It’s all about utility.” Shannon said this phrase a number of times in our interview and her lived perspectives on the Collaborative Consumption movement was impressive. Similar to the Time Banking idea, Collaborative Consumption (think Zip Cars, ebay, Bixi, swaps), allows consumers to share and in turn a community is born. When I first started riding my Bixi around Montreal three summers ago I realized that I was part of a delightfully dorky club of cyclists who traded in their craigslist cruisers for shared bikes. Riding around and seeing other Bixi users led to ringing bells of acknowledgement. Romanticized…maybe. But, Shannon speaks about the accidental community she created through bartering with a humble joy:
The community that I’ve accidentally created is my greatest success story. It’s a group of people who have like minded thoughts about this new economy… they are not scared of it and they like it. They trade within the community. They love trading, they have a trust, and I’ve acted as a natural screen for them.
With this new economy we’re forced to really look at what we need instead of what we want. Bartering and collaborative consumption requires patience, trust, and the building of relationships. The Barter Babes project is one example of how people are slowly changing how they interact with the capitalist model. For Shannon, bartering has forced her to look at this relationship critically, forgoing the instant gratification of currency for the more patient and thoughtful results of bartering.
Written by Arianne Shaffer, Kindle Project Media and Project Coordinator
Shannon Simmons is a financial advisor and founder of The Barter Babes Project. She specializes in Generation Y and their relationship with money. Shannon hopes to spread financial literacy by making financial advice and education more accessible, one barter at a time!
Check out her site here to learn more. You can also find her on Facebook.

Update from Beyond Digital - Morocco Behind the Scenes - Beyond Digital Morocco
We've featured the work of Beyond Digital before and we're always eager to share news from this skillfully artful group. In July we shared one of their first videos from their Morocco project and it was at that time we also told you about a Beyond Digital collaboration called Nettle, featuring Hassan Wargui.
Nettle and Hassan Wargui, who can be seen rehearsing in the video below, will be performing a free outdoor show this Friday a the Cinematheque de Tanger. If you're near...do check it out. To find out more about this Friday's show check out Jace Clayton's blog.

No Room for Squares: Down Home Style - Celebrating Urban Homesteading Kindle Project friend, adviser and grantee, Tiffany Brown has started a delicious revolution in the Bay Area. Her project, No Room for Squares, started as she began to DJ smooth vinyl sets in San Francisco and then realized that her love of music, local food, and community could be combined to be a growing movement.
Her project epitomizes the kind of collaboration that most inspires us. Tiffany has a special quality about her that makes combinations like sauerkraut and records feel completely natural. The links she is able to make between people, producers, artists and community is tapping into the innate and seemingly collective desire to be more connected to food, environment and joy. It’s a particular kind of collaboration – one that requires a skillful hustle that Tiffany has been having great success with.
In her article below you’ll get a chance to read a humbling account of how this collaborative project came into being, what’s been happening with it, and where it’s headed. Her descriptions also lend themselves to a kind of how-to that make this kind of work feel possible in most any urban context.
To stay in touch with No Room for Squares be sure to ‘like’ their Facebook page here.
[gallery columns="2" ids="1446,1448,1449"]
No Room for Squares: Down Home Style - Celebrating Urban Homesteading
by Tiffany Brown
A quote I often think about: “The role of the revolutionary artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” – Toni Cade Bambara
I think one issue in the city is that people on their “grind” can think of local, organic, wholesome food as unattainable: it’s expensive, no time, it’s alternative. The second issue is that a food activist approach can be preachy or dogmatic. In turn, I decided to focus on the joy of the food movement! We need to bring this joy to a wider audience and in an accessible environment with live music, DJs, good company – a party. And so my friend, Vanessa Carter, and I birthed No Room For Squares – Down Home Style (celebrating URBAN homesteading).
We started around the time that I was DJing a jazz happy hour (called No Room For Squares) at a local venue – SOM Bar. I was partnering with jazz musicians for an all vinyl set of funky jazz, and they were providing the live music component. I was meeting a lot of people in the nightlife sector. I started to see the potential for cross-pollination, and using the nightlife to leverage more activist oriented goals. Everyone I met I would tell that soon I would be offering a party of my own: Down Home Style.
The first party came out of a visit to the SF Underground market in January. This market was a membership-based movement to allow for food producers without access to a commercial kitchen to bring their wares for sale. It’s a brilliant operation that helps vendors to get their foot in the door to start their small businesses (which has recently been shut down by the SF Health Department!). Vanessa and I chatted with many vendors. We thought that the perfect first party could be home made sauerkraut, home made sausage and home brew beer (my younger cousin has been brewing for about a year now). We met with chef Peter Jackson (of Canvass Underground – pop-up dinners), and he was on board for our first party.
Step one: we taught ourselves how to make sauerkraut and invited folks to join in.
Step two: we made sure that cousin was ready to offer a tasting of home brew for the party.
Step three: Peter Jackson joined us for an evening of sausage making.
Our first party had about 40 people. There were folks from the nightlife scene (dancers, club owners, new friends), educators, organizers, family and neighbors. We gave a brief overview of the vision and had live music and I DJed. We offered subscriptions to the CSAs (community supported agriculture) that Vanessa and I were a part of: Marin Sun Farms which focuses on organic, grass fed meat and Mariquita for veggies. We brought attention to Peter’s endeavors with Canvass Underground. And we invited people to join us in future workshops where we teach ourselves how to make various seasonal items – to can, pickle, and brew beer.
The next party built on this momentum. The intention was to cast a wider net. It was held at a larger venue, a community business that rents out its commercial kitchen for a discounted rate to small-scale producers. We focused on having the local producers showcase their wares: a sauerkraut producer, Peter’s andouille sausage, home made bread from Sour Flour. Again, there was live music and a DJ. We had home brew beer, with back-up beer from a local producer (He’Brew). We had over 100 guests.
A few collaborations were born out of Down Home Style, and we expect many more as the project moves forward. The sauerkraut producer is partnering with a food truck owner, who was in attendance, to use his kraut for the truck's upscale street food. Another guest at the party, who is also a local producer, has been developing a plan for a San Francisco-based community space and commercial kitchen and is in conversation with the venue about her products and how the business got established as a community business. My cousin was able to meet the founder of He'Brew and learn about how to take home brewing to the next level. And Peter Jackson and I are exploring the many ways to bring his meat and the "whole hog" approach to urban homesteading parties in the future. (Whole hog meaning ways to utilize as much of the animal as possible so that we are not wasteful in the use of animals for our food).
A couple weeks after the party, I invited some local producers over for a dinner. We debriefed the party and brainstormed future projects to do together. The next day there was a panel discussion on the SF Underground market and the state of the local food movement. We all went to this discussion together. It felt powerful to be a small group that was a part of a larger movement of local foodies. We connected with another group offering many skills-sharing workshops called 18 Reasons. I feel that my role is to continue to foster this sense of community and create more ways to bring people together around food.
My intention is to make a revolution around food irresistible. We have a great time working together, eating together and playing together. The farmers and producers are a part of our community and we all teach each other how to become more involved one step at a time. It doesn’t have to be expensive, if you lean into your local farms, buy seasonal produce and learn to grow some of your own food. It doesn’t have to take tons of time if you start to focus on key things you are good at producing, so it’s effortless and fun. And then you can begin bartering for other people’s wares. This is a stepping-stone into an alternative economy!
Tiffany Brown (pictured here on the right with the other No Room for Squares organizers) has spent several years in the non profit sector as a Program Manager and Co-Director of YES!. She currently lives in San Francisco, using her event planning background to launch a production company titled No Room For Squares. Her passion is blending music, food/urban homesteading and community building. She is interested in collaborative leadership models for business and the exploration of alternative economies based on bartering and sharing. Jazz lover and foodie, Tiffany is driven to find a fun, accessible way to bring values alignment into how people think about their food choices and participation in the local economy.

Collaborations: Minuses and Natural Pluses
Not all collaborations are harmonious. Take Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s collaboration with Phil Collins (video above). Not amazing. It did relatively well on the charts in 2002, but in my opinion, not a triumphant example of a smooth and inspiring collaboration. Subjective, I know, yet still I think it’s an excellent jumping point for the endless nuances and mash-ups that fall under this word.
Collaboration is working together towards a shared goal. We collaborate for politics, for creativity, for peace, for music and magic, for change, for movement, and for war. Collaborators has been a term used in many political incarnations. In the early 1940’s the Vichy Government of France used the term to refer to those who aided the Nazi’s. In the same vain, below is an image of at Collaborationist Propaganda poster from 1942.
When I think of collaborators I think of people working together to make movement, positive change and affect power in unexpected ways. Collaboration is not a new idea. And, while many trends in social change champion the notion of collaboration above all else (which we don’t necessarily disagree with), we also see the places where this notion as a part of a movement for change has it’s flaws.
Collaboration is not only for those who want to grow rooftop gardens and mix synthesizers with puppetry, as is sometimes the trend in collaborative and interdisciplinary circles. Not to seem overly sarcastic…but the word is overused and we know it. Yet still, it has merit, it’s the basis of what we do, and we’re very interested in exploring some of the more bizarre and inventive collaborations we’re taking notice of lately.
As summer nears it’s end and we are wrapping up our first year of the Kindle Project blog, the idea to share some content based on the idea of collaboration is compelling. At Kindle the nature of what we do is collaborative. We are funders but we are also collaborators and work with our grantees. We’re invested in their work and see their missions as being a part of our own. This doesn’t necessarily makes us unique in the funding world, but it does enliven our work and further compels our mission.
We are hoping that in the next ten weeks you’ll be reading about the collaborations that Kindle Project is most excited about, impressed by, and think are cutting edge.

AIRE in The Taos News Growing young farmers and seeds at Taos Chrysalis Alternative High School
By Ariana Kramer
Originally published in the ToasNews.com site on Sunday, August 14, 2011 6:09 AM MDT
The acequia irrigating their fields dried up midsummer, and half the crops were eaten by prairie dogs.
It was a challenging first year for the eight young farmers attending Chrysalis Alternative High School who piloted the school's agricultural project.
The project is a collaboration between Chrysalis and Agricultural Implementation, Research and Education (AIRE), a new local nonprofit.
[caption id="attachment_1375" align="alignleft" width="264"] Miguel Santistevan[/caption]
AIRE's founder and director, Miguel Santistevan, is known for creating the successful Sembrando Semillas Acequia Youth in Agriculture Mentorship project, and as the host and producer of the radio show "¡Que Vivan Las Acequias!" in collaboration with the New Mexico Acequia Association and Cultural Energy.
Santistevan is currently a Ph.D. candidate in biology with the Sustainability Studies program at the University of New Mexico. Santistevan approached Orion Cervio, one of two co-head teachers at Chrysalis, about collaborating with the school on an agricultural project, and Cervio enthusiastically agreed.
The project fits into the Chrysalis curriculum as a biodiversity, agriculture, and permaculture unit in the life sciences class, with all Chrysalis staff contributing to the project.
"We work to integrate elements of the unit into all core subject areas and classrooms," said Cervio, who hopes to see the program expand in future years. "As it becomes more familiar and the rewards of involvement become better known by the student body, we anticipate the program being conducted schoolwide. We think that creating a learning environment in which students can eat food they grow and prepare themselves will be a huge evolutionary step for the Chrysalis Alternative School."
In the spring, Santistevan provided a series of schoolwide presentations at Chrysalis on traditional farming practices, crop diversity, seed identification and preservation, biology of seeds and contemporary politics of agriculture.
For his second presentation, Santistevan brought in a collection of seeds from the orginal crops grown by the Pueblo peoples and acequia communities of the Upper Río Grande bioregion. These staple crops have sustained generations of families. Santistevan played a game with the students to see who could identify the seeds.
"That's when I knew which kids I had hooked, cause as we were playing the game I was just watching the kids and how they responded to the seeds," he said.
Eight students emerged who wanted to deepen their involvement with the project. Joseph García was one of them. García followed Santistevan from the school building and into the parking lot after the seed presentation.
Santistevan recalled the moment.
"This kid followed me out to my car. 'Hey mister,' he said. 'I gotta tell you, I'm feeling everything you said. I want to be a farmer.' "
García was one of three of the eight students who committed to work on the project through the summer. He reflected on what sparked his interest. "Frankly, at first, I didn't really get into it. But, when he came in with the seeds.
He comes in with these seeds and he just told this whole theory — how this world is coming to [a place] where they don't even do irrigation like they used to. It kind of hit me — that the natural way of growing seeds is the way."
García was particularly struck by the genetic and historical significance of the crops they planted — crops like lentejas (lentils) and corn that have co-evolved with the people and microclimates of the Upper Río Grande bioregion for hundreds and thousands of years.
Santistevan has been collecting these seeds from traditional farmers for a seed library for years. He parcels them out to committed farmers who grow them in different microclimates to maintain their genetic resiliency.
"He [Santistevan] was telling us that the seed he has is from generations and generations of passing it down in his family. He told us they're the best seeds to grow in Taos, because they're already used to the human environment and desert," García recollected.
Planting crops In April, Santistevan took the whole class out to the field leased for the project. The students spread seven yards of manure and made rows using hand tools. They planted garlic, peas and other early season crops.
Later, a group from Vista Grande High School came out and planted another section of the field as part of an Expeditionary Learning experience. Soon the fields filled with squash, corn, lentils, potatoes, garbanzos, wheat, oats and buckwheat. Students came out once a week to irrigate using acequia water. In mid-June the acequia went dry.
This provided an interesting twist on an experiment conducted on comparative crop dynamics. Oregon strains of peas were planted next to Taos peas to see what kind of difference in crop production could be seen between locally-adapted crops and their Northwestern counterparts. One Chrysalis student, Chris Duran, is developing a science fair project based on the experiments. Santistevan said they will conduct scientific analysis, but it's obvious which seeds came from Oregon.
"You can tell because the Oregon guys are just suffering beyond belief, and the Taos guys all produced."
This drives home the point that the staple crops traditionally grown here are adapted to drought conditions. Santistevan has a way to determine how much of their resiliency is genetically encoded in the seed. Another research project he envisions is comparing this year's crops with their parental and grandparental strains (which did not experience the 2011 drought) to see what degree of resiliency is encoded in the genes due to the genetic bottleneck of this year's drought.
The real crops that the Chrysalis students grew are seeds that survived the bottleneck. They mimicked what farmers have always known. If you grow, save, and replant seeds, the trials of each generation strengthen the seed — and the farmers.
"When it comes to what is the most sophisticated, welladapted, resilient agricultural system, in North America, it's under your feet," asserts Santistevan. "It's right here — Upper Río Grande region. Because we make good use of our water, we have models for sharing water, we make good use of our land and our crops, and we have all these mechanisms to adjust and adapt."
Santistevan continued, "By and large, the rest of the world simply does not have that. They have no idea. They're trying to genetically engineer a drought-tolerant corn. Come on! Corn's already drought tolerant. You can't improve upon perfection. What they gotta realize is they gotta stop putting so much water on it, so much fertilizer on it, so much herbicide on it, so much pesticide on it, and let it be what it is. And there's plenty for everybody. And we're the ones that know that, you know. We have that embedded in the seed. It's in the seed. It's in the memory of the seed. We have the seed, and we have the memory of the seed, and then we have the memory of how to do it, cause we continue it. And that's what's happening here."
To illustrate his point, Santistevan gestures to his cornfield where bright green leaves wave cheerfully in the breezes. It's the hottest part of the year, the rains haven't started, and the plants haven't been watered for six weeks. Only three plants are complaining. Not so, the Chrysalis students.
Despite the fact that most of their crops ended up as prairie dog food, they are not discouraged. They have handfuls of seeds, and their school has a handful of student farmers. AIRE's work is supported by the Kindle Project and their umbrella organization the Center of Southwest Culture, as well as research funding from Tobias Duran at the Center for Regional Studies at UNM.
Santistevan and his wife, Margarita García, maintain a small experimental seedsaving and demonstration farm in Taos called Sol Feliz and are available for group tours, demonstrations and presentations on traditional farming and foods.
They are especially interested in working with local day-care centers and youth groups.
For photographs and videos, visit www. solfeliz.org. See AIRE at www.growfarmers.

The History of the Quimbo in Colombia: Dammed or Damned? by Jonathan Luna The Quimbo Dam in the Department of Huila, Colombia is one of the largest infrastructure mega projects the country is currently implementing. It is expected to be functional in 2014.
Not any smaller then the Dam is this megaproject´s ecological and social impacts. The peak over the beach along the Magdalena River downhill from the village of la Jagua, the small bridge over the Yaguilga river, the church of San José de Belén, the cocoa orchards of Río Loro, the history of how La Escalereta came to be, the watering hole of el Poira, are just some of the places and things that have always existed and that the dam threatens to destroy.
During the last years, the local population has been organizing to defend its rights and its territory and demand that Emgesa-Endesa-Enel, the Italy-Spanish Corporation behind the Project, meet its social and environmental responsibilities.
The region of the Quimbo is rich in endemic biodiversity and fertile agricultural lands. During the last couple of months there have been denouncements against ecological destruction, increased cost of living, psychological traumas, and abuses against local communities such as the destruction of the subsistence means that the inhabitants of the area depend on to survive.
The Comings and Goings of the Dam Project
Since 2007, Emgesa was already going around the territory raising different colored flags to show where the shores would be of the new reservoir, distributing donations to schools in the region and initiating the roundtables discussions with the affected communities that were directed by the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development and the Departmental Government of the Department of Huila.
“The objective of these roundtables was to protect the rights of the inhabitants of the communities and to reach an agreement between the communities and the company. After some time we felt that what was being told to us within these roundtables was a lie, the Ministry´s real interest was to collect signatures as evidence for local support to the project, as of that moment we left that process. We separated and received legal and organizational counseling and we formed the Association of the Affected of the Quimbo Hydrolelectric Project –Asoquimbo. Asoquimbo is made up of the inhabitants from all the different communities that would be affected by this project and uses consensus as their decision making process” explained Elsa Ardila, President of Asoquimbo. “We fight to defend our rights as the affected and the rights of the territory.”
Since then, there has been a constant wave of declarations, gatherings, articles, concerts, theatre, documentaries and international reports pressuring for termination of this Project and for the alternate proposal of creating a Agro Nutritional Campesino Reserve as a better option for the region. In March and May of 2009 there were protests in the regional capital of Neiva, and in December of last year there were blockades along the national highway in Río Loro. The case of this mega project did not even escape from being mentioned in the WikiLeaks cables.
Nonetheless, in May 2009 Environmental license No. 150509 was issued to Emgesa-Endesa-Enel to construct the dam. Since then the license has been modified three times and the company has not met its obligations to the environment or the local communities.
An investigation by International Rivers over the Quimbo mentions that there has been a “lack of acknowledgement of environmental norms and legal process” and that the project has been “implemented with the omission of the participation of those affected”.
When asked about this in March, Sandra Chavarro Montero, of the Technical Direction Team of the Quimbo Project affirmed that “in the environmental impact study all the impacts were identified…and the environmental plan to mitigate, compensate and control those impacts were agreed upon.” When asked about the Amazonian Protective Forest Reserve, the local resistance to the project, the frustrations of those affected or the irregularities within their process, Chavarro insisted over and over again that the project had support from the State and said “Emgesa must comply with the Management Plan approved by the Ministry and the other requirements established within the environmental license.”
On February 24 when President Santos and the major media outlets arrived to lay the first stone of the project, there was an open council meeting against the dam in the municipality of Gigante, Huila. The mobilizations continued in various cities and were followed by a public general assembly in Bogotá against mega projects.
On March 30 the Ombudsman´s Office of Colombia demanded the environmental license granted to Emgesa for the Quimbo Project be revoked immediately. Sometime later Asoquimbo organized an assembly with over 300 people. “It is clear that the Ombudsman´s Office is against this project, and that the accords the company was granted a license on with respect to the environmental impact and the compensations of people who subsist and live in those territories has not been done,” said Miller Dussán, of Platform South of Social Organizations. “As of now we suspend all forms of dialogue with Emgesa-Endesa-Enel. We remain firm that the affected area needs to be an Agro Nutritional Campesino Reserve and in the meanwhile there are desires of small scale farmers, day laborers and workers from the farms that have been sold to Emgesa to occupy and return those lands to a productive status.” Soon Asoquimbo will convene a roundtable to dialogue with the participation of international organisms such as the UN and OAS.
Meanwhile, the regional organizations continue to grow and as community participation increases they acquire more experience and knowledge of their struggle to remain on their lands. The idea of an Agro Nutritional Campesino Reserve today is a life plan for an entire region that has been woven with the participation of the affected inhabitants. It is an eco-social project generated from the communities from their own vision and sensitive to their needs.
Beyond el Quimbo
The Quimbo in Huila, is only one controversy that Emgesa-Endesa-Enel is implicated in. In 2008, in the final session of the Peoples Permanent Tribunal: Emgesa-Endesa (prior to being acquired by Enel) was condemned for violating the rights of its workers, infringing upon industrial security and the ecological destruction of Bogotá and Guarinó Rivers among others.
South, in the Chilean Patagonia, another incredibly ecologically unique place, Endesa is being accused of destroying sacred places of the Mapuche People as they advance their plans to build dams even though there has been a constant conflict with the local organizations that fight to defend their territory. Even Andrea Echeverry from the Colombian musical band Aterciopelados took advantage of the stage in Miami to reject this environmental destruction and mining done from the “1st world” to the “3rd world”.
The Quimbo is another mega project that claims to be green, even when environmental and social impact shows it is something quite different. This is but one of many mega energy projects intended for extracting these so called natural resources from the continent. The history of el Quimbo is repeated with most of these energy mega projects. How sustainable is a development that even from before the initiation of the project, local clashes and conflicts are already arising? What is lacking is a space to debate, locally, globally, or even continentally to define a true development inclusive of the communities of the affected regions.
Source: Article and photo originally published on June 5, 2011 on Upsidedownworld.org

Editorial Reflection on Conflict Transformation I work for Kindle Project as the Media and Project Coordinator from Toronto, Ontario. I was raised and have lived most of my life in Canada, and I am proud of this country. There is something about the passive Canadian culture however, that is getting more and more difficult for me to accept. While I revel in the landscape of this country, its universal health care, the relatively low level of violent crime, and the true diversity and security that I am privileged to live in, I am at odds with something else very tangible:
I have been struggling with how we Canadians deal with conflict. There is a strong history of grassroots activism in our country (see Leemor Valin’s article here), but most of the time, we stay relatively quiet. I can’t help but feel as though our collective culture is not set up to challenge some of the more complex and ubiquitous societal, environmental and political issues.
Peace and Conflict scholars, Peace Education scholars in particular, love to use Canada as a model for their popular concept of ‘Culture of Peace’. In a sense, yes, we’re a part of that. In some Canadian schools boards we’re even starting to adopt the beginning phases of a curriculum that could one day embody the kind of comprehensive peace education that Tony Jenkins has described. Still, I am compelled to ask: Does the passive Canadian voice really prevent us from solving conflict on a large scale, or is it that we need to think of conflict differently? Maybe we need to take it all in smaller bites?
These questions, among many others, are perpetually bouncing around in my mind, and even more so since I have had the opportunity to work with our conflict transformation experts these past few months as we curate the blog. The only answers I can come up with seem like miniscule responses to what feel like epically large questions; questions that I am certainly not alone in asking.
If we are to transform conflict, I am convinced we must begin on the tiniest of micro levels. Susan Strasburger and Be Present taught us about this from the intra and interpersonal perspectives on conflict that they both explored in their articles published last month on the Kindle blog. And as I reflect back on the fifteen posts from the past few months, I realize that the articles we chose to publish all have to do with transformation of conflict on a day-to-day, microcosmic level.
While some of our contributors have big impact campaigns, like the Yes Labs and Coal Cares, they approach these campaigns by tackling seemingly small issues and watching their actions reverberate on various levels. The same is true of United Roots – they are helping to create a Culture of Peace with the youth of Oakland, and these individual changes are impacting the community on a profound level by working to eradicate cycles of violence.
Then there were the two astute and heartfelt reflections from Maria Alejandra Escalante and Anastasia Vladimirova from United World College. From their writing I had the opportunity to reflect on the deep possibilities for change when groups of people come together with gentle and focused leadership.
Even our response to Alex, the imposter journalist who tried to challenge our commitment to Amazon Watch, was a micro conflict that we tried to transform in the best way we knew how – an honest and carefully crafted letter, that we chose to publish on our blog to confirm our commitment to partner with groups such as Amazon Watch. We could have stayed quiet, but for us, being tactfully vocal in the public sphere about who we support and why is part of our mission.
My Canadian frustrations remain. I don’t know how I’ll come to terms with this passive culture, but I am convinced that there are small changes happening that will hopefully have powerful ripple effects as time passes.
Here in Toronto the ripples of these movements are already starting to take hold. Innovative people and organizations are working on local levels that I am certain will have effect on the larger picture of our culture. The brilliant work of Jane Jacobs (see video below to hear her articulate her views on the nature of economies) has been used to form the base of the internationally popular Jane’s Walk, through which people are discovering their city and their neighborhoods in innovative ways.
The Toronto Public Library’s Workers Union have just mobilized a campaign to save our library system which is being threatened to be privatized or shut down under the hands of our Conservative Mayor, Rob Ford. Our Public Library’s rescue effort has already garnered much support with over 12,000 signatures to their petition in one week!
Then, there are the My City Lives folks who are creating an online platform that allows users to share experiences with public spaces in their city using videos. These web stories live on an interactive map showcasing the locations where they were filmed so you can learn about your city based on the stories of others.
What I’ve learned from our blog contributors these past months is to remember this: despite the fire that burns so strongly in so many of us, to see large scale systemic change take root in our countries, we must be acutely aware of the small ways in which it already is.
It has been an enlightening experience to work with all of our contributors this cycle. I sincerely look forward to introducing our next blog theme of Collaboration, which will launch after our summer holiday.
Wishing you simultaneously restful and productive summers. We’ll be back on August 18th.
- Arianne Shaffer, Kindle Project Media and Project Coordinator

Update: Beyond Digital's Summer Project in Morocco Kindle Project friend and grantee, Beyond Digital, has been in Morocco this summer working on their current project. The project focuses on how creative adaptations of global digital technologies in Morocco are helping to transform youth culture and suggesting powerful alternatives to Western concepts of digital literacy (Source: Beyond Digital site). Just in today, we are excited to share their first video from this project. Featuring Hassan Wargui of Imanaren, this beautifully shot video gives a sweet glimpse into the wonderful work of this collaborative team. In addition, Beyond Digital will be offering a concert & presentation at The Cinemateque du Tanger on September 9th:
BEYOND DIGITAL presents Nettle and Hassan Wargui – This evening will feature a free concert by DJ /rupture's Nettle, a band from Brooklyn who combine violin, cello, and voice with electronics. They will be joined by Hassan Wargui, a Berber musician based in Casablanca. The night will begin with a multimedia presentation by the Beyond Digital crew, discussing their collaborative artist project investigating contemporary Moroccan popular music. Nettle has toured the U.K. & Belgium with Nass El Ghiwane, and are releasing an album this September which is the soundtrack to an imaginary remake of The Shining, set in Dubai.
Stay in touch here and also on the Beyond Digital site for further details about this event. Whether you will be in Morocco or not, you'll want to stay tapped in to the work and creations of these artists. You can also read more about their Morocco project on The Fader, where the Beyond Digital crew wrote about their initial meeting with Wargui.
Hassan Wargui - Imanaren from Beyond Digital on Vimeo.

The Slow Ladder of Social Change: Conflict and the Legal System by Leemor Valin When we were planning the blog theme of conflict transformation, one of the areas we were interested in exploring was how law is used as a tool to transform conflict. There is, of course, the obvious and traditional way in which the rule of law is enforced, but we were wondering about the deeper and more creative uses of law. Then I met Leemor Valin, a Toronto-based lawyer, who had a powerful story to share about her role in last year’s G20 summit in Toronto, Ontario. It was incredible to hear her speak as both an activist and a lawyer simultaneously. It’s not such an unusual blend of identities, but it is one I rarely hear articulated so well.
Leemor’s article, The slow ladder of social change: conflict and the legal system, which was specially written for the Kindle blog, explores the relationship between law and activism, using her experiences as a legal observer during the G20 summit as a case study. Her forthright and personal account gives a glimpse into the push and pull of an activist fighting for proper representation, while demonstrating an astute understanding of how law can be a useful, and even necessary, ingredient for social change.
The Slow Ladder of Social Change: Conflict and the Legal System
by Leemor Valin
June 27th marked the one year anniversary of the day that I got arrested and detained during the G20 summit in Toronto. I am a lawyer, and on June 27th I had been a lawyer for exactly 11 days before hitting the streets as a volunteer legal observer with the Movement Defence Committee during the G20.
When I first found out that the G20 was going to be held in downtown Toronto I knew that the city and its citizens were setting itself up for a weekend of miscommunication and casualties. During my years as an undergraduate student at McGill University I had volunteered as a legal observer during the April 2001 Free Trade Area of the Americas Summit in Quebec City (FTAA Summit). This was my first glimpse at an international summit protest and it was terrifying. There were mass arrests (not as many as the G20 in Toronto), but the main strategy used during the FTAA Summit was tear gas and rubber bullets. In Toronto last summer, the strategy was brute force.
During the G20 I saw and experienced horrific things, things that I would never have expected to happen in my country. Although I felt it coming, I could not believe that the reality was occurring, at first in front of my face, and then happening to me.
I will quickly give a breakdown of my experiences during the summit, and then I will put on my lawyer hat and say a little bit of what one year has given me in terms of perspective on the G20 and on the role I feel the legal system has to play in broader societal conflicts.
I volunteered as a legal observer with the Movement Defense Committee, a branch of the Law Union in Toronto, during the week leading up to the G20 and on the weekend itself. I was paired up with a man named Kevin, who I later found out was an undercover cop, spending about two full days with him.
On that infamous Saturday Torontonians and people across North America and abroad watched the media focus in on burning cars and smashed windows. On the ground there was an entirely different story to tell, and one that I am still trying to figure out today.
That day I witnessed too many people being brutally arrested and beaten by our police men and women. Most of what I saw happened at Queens Park, the designated protest area, over the course of four hours. The way they arrested people was what was so shocking. First the police would rush the people milling around Queens Park. Then they would break out from their police line, and about five police would jump on one person and drag them back behind the police line. All you could see were several large navy blue clad bodies with arms and legs heaving on top of one disappearing body, and then that person was dragged away. I remember one young man that was sitting on the ground with his notebook out; he had on burgundy corduroy pants and a vest and could not have been more than 20 years old. When the police line rushed the crowd he was enveloped, taken back behind the police line, and then disappeared. I remember thinking how innocent this young man looked, how he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have just as easily been me.
Most of us were too shocked to leave Queens Park while this was happening. We were also indignant that the police would not let us stay anywhere on the street despite the fact that no one was even protesting at that point. Maybe just sticking around was our protest. I stayed also because I felt it was my duty to witness.
That night I could not rest. I kept thinking of all those people that were brutally arrested and I decided at about 11:30pm to join the first group doing jail solidarity in front of the temporary detention centre at Eastern Ave. and Pape St., a non-descript corner in the east end of Toronto, about 4 kilometres from where the G20 was taking place.
[caption id="attachment_1302" align="alignleft" width="586"] Leemor being arrested. She is on the right in the green shirt and orange hat which had the words Legal Observer printed on it.[/caption]
I won't go into all the details, but at about 1:00 am I was arrested along with approximately twenty other people for not leaving the area fast enough, although it was an entirely peaceful and quiet gathering. I was detained for 12 hours, but I had it easy. Some of the others arrested at the same time as me were kept for over 20 hours without permission to make a phone call, without sufficient food or water, and in cells that were too cold and bright to fall asleep in. Afterwards I met people who had been held for close to 30 hours in those conditions.
The police and guards in the detention centre feigned ignorance pretending not to know what rights the Canadian Constitution bestows upon its citizens. When I asked my male guard if it would not be more appropriate to have a female guard as there was no door to our portable washroom, the answer was “I don't know, we will see”. “I don't know, we will see” was the only answer.
You do not know what Kafkaesque means until you experience an entire suspension of the rule of law under bright fluorescent lights and a cold cement floor. As a person without a legal background in that setting, it was disturbing enough. No one could understand the extremity of it. As a lawyer, I felt two feelings simultaneously: one was a feeling of shame that people were being treated this way and that the law of the country and its constitution, was blatantly ignored; and the second feeling was one of respect for the fact that these laws even existed, even though they were not being followed. I was proud, in that moment, to be someone who could advocate on behalf of those “forgotten laws”.
I did not always feel that proud. I spent years debating whether I should go to law school, and I spent my entire law school career complaining, feeling that the law could do little to nothing to actually affect change.
I still feel that the most significant change that happens in society starts from the bottom up in grassroots movements and not through the legal system. There is not enough space here to list all of the movements in history that have changed how we live and how we approach others, but the women's liberation movement, rights for and respect for sexual orientation, and Native rights are just a few. In each of those cases, the last step in institutionalizing and normalizing citizen’s rights was for them to be cemented into law.
Conflict seems a necessary part of the puzzle and is unavoidable. Change in society happens when the message of the quiet voice becomes the desire of the whole. Judges will only rule against the “status quo”, when the status quo has in fact already shifted and is already transforming into something else. If one looks to the history of decision making in Canadian courts, one can see the development of ideas becoming norms. Once upon a time, not so long ago, if a woman said nothing while being raped, she could have been found by a judge to have consented to the rape. Now if a woman is raped and it goes to court, her silence can mean that she was non-consenting [For reference see: R. v. Ewanchuk, [1999] 1 S.C.R. 330]. This change only happened after decades (the Ewanchuk case was only in 1999) of lobbying by women against violence groups, Take Back the Night walks on campuses in Canada and the United States, and other countless ways people have been advocating for women’s safety in sexual encounters with men.
This takes me back to the G20 and what occurred there. What I experienced during and after the G20 gave me insight into another important function of the law. It was only through experiencing the rule of law disappear, that I realized how important it really is.
In the aftermath of the G20, the lawyers were and are the only ones able to hold the police truly accountable. For days, as hundreds filed through bail court, defense lawyers of this city worked around the clock to defend those who had been abused and falsely charged. Only recently has the Toronto Star played a role in bringing the police to justice, but they only did so when it was safe, and when the images of burning police cars are no longer moneymakers.
The act of cleaning up after a conflict has died down is not only true for the G20 and other conflicts like it, but on a larger scale. On May 31, 2011, Ratko Mladic, the person who instructed thousands to be massacred and raped in Serbia in the early 1990s, is finally being brought to justice at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague. When he is convicted, perhaps some sense of resolution will be felt for those who survived.
Today, I am still wary of the effectiveness of the legal system, but I feel privileged to be a part of a profession that is there to pick up the pieces after the conflict is over. In the end, the law helps us adapt to what is coming, or to what is finally here.
Leemor is a lawyer and social change participant. She makes her home in Toronto, ON.

A New Era of Peace Education: Towards a Shared and Comprehensive Perspective by Tony Jenkins This week’s original article by Kindle Project friend, Tony Jenkins is a welcome addition to our exploration of conflict transformation. As a central figure in the Peace Education movement, Tony’s wisdom, nuance, and candid observations act as refreshing revelations in what is often be perceived as a nebulous field.
As Tony describes, the most basic tenet of Peace Education, and often the most difficult and complex to practice, is to foster the ability to consider any given situation from multiple viewpoints. Sounds simple enough? It, however, is not. As we’ve seen from some of our other contributors this season, even the smallest of conflicts can be hard to view outside of one’s own lens.
While I’ve always struggled with the language of Peace Education, I have continually resonated with its message. What I appreciate about Tony’s article is his truthful outlook on the risks we’re taking as educators if we do not start to pay very careful attention to the need for a comprehensive perspective. This will take undoubtedly tremendous work at all levels. Knowing Tony, I am grateful that he is at the forefront of this movement helping to bring the hard-hitting skills to so many educators working for social change.
A New Era of Peace Education: Towards a Shared and Comprehensive Perspective
by Tony Jenkins, Director of Education, National Peace Academy
For the past 10 years my professional and institutional affiliations have placed me at the center of several intersecting global networks of peace educators. From this unique position I’ve observed a significant expansion in peace education developments at all levels. While this growth seeds new hope it also ushers in several concerns.
The increase in numbers of peace educators the past decade can be traced to several factors, the most glaring being the new world order established by the perpetual global war on terror. This new realpolitik has impacted nearly all levels of society, from the local to the global, reshaping the individual, interpersonal, political, economic and ecological dimensions of life on our planet.
In response to this shifting world order, a crop of activist leaning peace educators has emerged, many who have equated peace education to education for activism. While it is critical for peace educators to capacitate students for action and change, turning classrooms into laboratories for activism is indoctrination. This, and other pedagogical concerns, represents the greatest challenges to the field of peace education. While all education is political, and it is impossible to enter into a teaching relationship without bringing our personal values and principles, it is still possible to teach for peace in a value consistent way without indoctrinating. Unfortunately, the complexity of peace education pedagogy is beyond the scope of this brief article. I hope, rather, to illuminate the need for the development of a commonly shared, comprehensive conception of peace education.
The issues and concerns of conflict and violence are broad making the field of peace education difficult to define. Peace education takes a different lens depending upon social and political contexts: issues of violence in Libya are very different than those in Kansas. While lens taking is essential, if peace education is to be personally and socially transformative, peace educators need to capacitate citizens to be able to take holistic, micro-macro, and past-present-future perspectives. Such perspective taking helps to illuminate the systemic nature of violence and aids learners in uncovering the issues that lie beneath. This is the perspective taken by Dr. Betty Reardon in her widely influential book “Comprehensive Peace Education: Educating for Global Responsibility” in which she defines the goals of peace education as oriented toward the "development of a planetary consciousness that will enable us to function as global citizens and to transform the present human condition by changing societal structures" (Reardon, 1988).
A comprehensive approach to peace education can seem overwhelming. It is transdisciplinary in scope and requires the nurturance of multiple modes of learning, reflection, thinking, and doing. Trying to define the numerous, interrelated issues of peace and violence is beyond the scope of most learning experiences. While we cannot easily convey such complexity, it is possible to capacitate learners to think systemically and holistically.
At the National Peace Academy (NPA) we have been seeking to demystify peace through a holistic, inquiry-based, conceptual framework. While there are many holistic definitions of peace, the NPA’s framework starts with an understanding of peace as shaped by the definition contained in the Earth Charter:
“…peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part” (The Earth Charter, 2000).
This definition invites learners to deeply inquire into the nature of peace and “right relationships” by asking: what are the values, principles and ethics that inform and sustain right relationships, and how and by whom are they determined? This concept of peace also illuminates five interdependent spheres of peace and “right relationships” that form the core of a comprehensive peace education inquiry: the personal, social, political, institutional, and the ecological.
From this framework, the substance and values of comprehensive peace education can be pursued through inquiry. For example, how we nurture personal peace can be pursued through inquiry into how we manage and act upon our internal conflicts, attitudes, actions, and emotions toward living with integrity. Similarly, the possibilities for understanding and nurturing political peace can be pursued through inquiry into how we engage in decision-making processes and public discourse. This is only a snippet of a very complex inquiry. These five spheres must also be examined systemically; observing how each represents a unique, reciprocally reinforcing sphere of human organization and relationships.
If having hope requires having possibilities, we can take comfort in that fact that possibilities can be generated through inquiries such as those introduced above. It is my hope that a comprehensive approach to peace education can unite educators together through inquiry into commonly shared concerns and issues, while still allowing educators to address local issues of immediate concern.
Links, References and Recommended Resources
The National Peace Academy’s Conceptual Framework for Peace Education & Peacebuilding Programs
The Earth Charter
The International Institute on Peace Education
The Global Campaign for Peace Education
Reardon, B.A. (1988). Comprehensive Peace Education: Educating for Global Responsibility. New York: Teachers College Press
About the Author
Tony Jenkins is the Education Director of the National Peace Academy and serves as the Global Coordinator of the International Institute on Peace Education and the Global Campaign for Peace Education. As the Education Director of the National Peace Academy, Tony oversees the development of formal and non-formal educational programs and a research agenda designed to promote and inquire into the conditions and learning and educational change strategies for nurturing positive peace. Prior to joining the National Peace Academy, Tony was the Co-Director of the Peace Education Center at Teachers College, Columbia University where he coordinated peace education research and program development nationally and internationally. Tony has taught courses in peace education, human rights, disarmament education, and gender and peace at Teachers College, Columbia University's New York and Tokyo Campuses; Jaume I University in Spain; and at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica. Tony’s current work and research interests focus on examining the impacts and effectiveness of peace education methods and pedagogies in nurturing personal, social, and political change and transformation.

The Field of Journalist Security and it's Place in Conflict Transformation: An article by CPJ's Frank Smyth Today's distinctive article by Frank Smyth, the Washington Representative and the Journalist Security Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), touches on a very specific area of conflict transformation that is of great interest to us here at Kindle. He writes about the need for journalists in the field to have training for a wide array of specific skills from sexual assault avoidance to digital information security.
When I spoke with Frank this week, our conversation interestingly led us to a discussion of the essential importance of training one’s inner self when faced with overt conflict situations in the field. As he notes in his article, there is some training for journalists going into these rough circumstances, but it is almost always offered by former military personnel. While that can be useful, there is a gap in this structure.
Journalists need to have a very solid inner understanding of themselves, their boundaries, their body language and their capacities in order to protect themselves in the field. Frank spoke to me about how this can be made manifest if journalists can have a space to approach fear and trauma not only from an intellectual standpoint, but also from an emotional and physical perspective. Ideally, a journalist in the field should be able to project strength as opposed to fear, thus being able to do the important job of sharing news and events with greater efficacy.
As we are nearing the close of this blog season, Frank’s article is perfectly placed, because it not only addresses the specific need for journalists to have the training to embody conflict transformation in themselves, but it also acts as a reminder that no matter the industry, this essential work of knowing ourselves can serve to strengthen our work.
Thank you to Frank for his permission to re-publish this article that was originally posted on the CPJ website on June 7, 2011.
In journalist security field, maturing and understanding
By Frank Smyth/CPJ Journalist Security Coordinator
Journalist security is still a maturing field, but news organizations are devoting more attention to preparing their reporters and photographers for the dangers particular to the profession. That means understanding risks that are constantly evolving. The brutal attack on CBS correspondent Lara Logan at a Cairo demonstration has drawn worldwide attention to the issue of sexual assault against journalists--CPJ issued new guidelines on the threat today--but the case also points to an emerging, if lesser-known threat. In the past 18 months, more journalists have been killed covering violent demonstrations and other non-military events than at any time since CPJ began keeping detailed records two decades ago.
"The Lara Logan case drove the point home, that we must prepare our journalists not only for the battlefield but for all of the various new threats they face when covering the news," said Larry Rubenstein, a photojournalist who recently became Thomson Reuters' general manager for safety and logistics for editorial. "But we've been seeing it for some time and are continually reviewing our training."
For decades the overwhelming majority of all journalists killed worldwide, nearly three out four, were murdered outright. Most were local journalists murdered in direct reprisal for their work. Fewer than one in five were killed in combat. And even fewer, about one in 10, were killed covering violent demonstrations.
That seems to have changed, at least for the time being. The rise of street demonstrations and related violent clashes poses an emerging threat to journalists. So far this year, for the first time that CPJ has documented, more journalists (eight) died in violent protests than were murdered (four) or killed on the battlefield (five).
The shift began last year, when one in four work-related fatalities was related to street demonstrations. One has go to back well over a decade in CPJ's database to find a time when a sizeable number of journalists were killed outside of murder or military combat. (The year was 1997, when five documentary filmmakers were among 17 people killed in a bomb attack in India.)
Rubenstein says Thomson Reuters is adjusting its security training and protocols to take into account a shift from battlefield hazards to civilian threats. The changes include more training in cultural skills to help journalists navigate chaotic crowds. Security professionals who train journalists say they are adjusting their curriculum to reflect the challenges.
For years, former military personnel--especially British Royal Marines who dominate firms such as Centurion and Tor International--have provided much of the security training for journalists. But today civilian experts are taking a more prominent role in preparing journalists for risks that are particular to the field, including the threat of sexual aggression on the job.
Melissa Soalt is one. "Predators will often test you first," said Soalt, an independent self-defense expert who specializes in training women. "So women must maintain their physical space through body language, demeanor, and even tone of voice."
Properly addressing the aftermath of a sexual assault, when trauma may set in, is very important as well. Among news organizations, there is increasing awareness of the need to provide stress and trauma management to staffers. The Associated Press has done exemplary work in developing procedures to help manage stress, according to trauma experts. "We make every effort to calibrate our response to our employees' reactions to covering violent or difficult situations," Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography, told CPJ. "We seek out leaders in the field of trauma separately to that end."
Covering the news, of course, requires constant adjustment to ever-changing events. New organizations are learning that the security of their journalists also depends on understanding and adjusting to evolving threats.
Frank Smyth is CPJ’s Washington representative and journalist security coordinator. He has reported on armed conflicts, organized crime, and human rights from nations including El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Iraq. Follow him on Twitter @SmythFrank.

Uranium Mining Danger to Water: A Piece by NMELC's Executive Director
This piece was originally published in the Santa Fe New Mexican on Saturday, June 25, 2011. It was written by Douglas Meiklejohn the Executive Director of Kindle grantee, New Mexico Environmental Law Center.
Congratulations to The New Mexican for its June editorials supporting the 20-year moratorium on uranium mining at the Grand Canyon and to the Obama administration for considering the moratorium. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center also supports the moratorium and favors reforming the 1872 Mining Act that makes such mining possible.
The New Mexican's editorial raises a very important issue that has particular significance for people in New Mexico: protecting water from contamination from uranium mining. Uranium mining on the Grand Canyon's rim is likely to result in the contamination of the Colorado River, which is a significant source of drinking water for major Western cities hundreds of miles downstream.
But here in New Mexico, a uranium mining company is proposing to conduct uranium mining within an aquifer that already supplies drinking water. This project would inject chemicals into the groundwater under Navajo communities, which would react chemically with the uranium ore bodies to allow for extraction. Although uranium ore currently exists in the drinking-water aquifer, under natural conditions it is immobile. Only after reacting with the mining chemicals does uranium contamination move throughout large portions of the aquifer.
This type of mining — called in situ leach or ISL mining — has a dismal environmental track record. In the 30-plus years that industry has used this mining technique, no commercial-scale operation has ever been able to restore a mined aquifer to its pre-mining condition. In other words, when an ISL operation is used to mine uranium, the aquifer in which the mining occurs will be contaminated with radiation and heavy metals forever.
If this project was proposed for a remote, unpopulated area with already poor groundwater quality, then the situation might be different. But the project is proposed for two Navajo communities — Crownpoint and Church Rock — where approximately 15,000 people get their drinking water from the aquifer that is proposed to be used for ISL mining.
Common sense dictates that no government should tolerate any project that would jeopardize drinking water supplies. But with this project, the government regulator is the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an agency that is notoriously cozy with the industry it "regulates." The chances that this mining will be resisted successfully by community and political opposition are compromised because the NRC often approves projects like these in low-income and minority communities that are politically disenfranchised. The impacts that unsafe ISL mining would have in Crownpoint and Church Rock are particularly harsh because these communities continue to suffer from the burden of pollution from Cold War-era uranium mines and mills.
The Grand Canyon deserves protection. Its natural wonder and cultural importance cannot be replaced. But the people and water resources of New Mexico deserve protection too. The federal government has made its choice — corporate profits outweigh public health. It is now up to New Mexicans to fight to protect our communities and resources. State and local governments must now find the will to say "no" to ill-conceived projects like this proposed ISL mining in order to protect the long-term economy, public health, and environment of our state and its residents.
Douglas Meiklejohn is the executive director of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. He lives in Santa Fe.

Update on Las Conchas Fire from Nuclear Watch New Mexico The Risk to Waste Stored at Area G
We pride ourselves here at Nuclear Watch New Mexico on trying to stick to the facts as we best we know them and not being alarmist. That said, the Las Conchas Fire that has now crossed the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL’s) southwestern boundary is a real threat. For starters is the mind-blowing fact that in just 30 hours this fire has grown bigger than the notorious 2000 Cerro Grande Fire which burned ~48,000 acres (~5,000 acres within Lab boundaries), and traveled in a beeline 12 miles to get to the Lab. With forecasted days of strong winds and gusts and high temperatures it’s hard to say where this fire might go and what it might do. Pray for rain.
We are not so concerned about the hardened facilities at the Lab constructed of concrete and cleared of combustible materials (i.e., trees and brush) around their perimeters. We doubt that there would be any breech to their containment that would let contaminants escape (with one caveat below). But we do have concerns. One is the fact that over 6 decades the Lab has blown up a lot of uranium and depleted uranium in dynamic high explosives experiments in the general area in front of the fire. We don’t know to what extent the shrapnel or debris has been cleaned up and could possibly be aerosolized.
Another concern, given both the velocity and ferocity of the Las Conchas Fire, is whether any Lab facilities loose their power and back up generators failed to work for whatever reason. In that case containment systems could fail with unknown safety implications.
But our biggest concern is whether the fire could reach the fabric buildings (essentially very large tents) at Technical Area-54’s Area G that store some 20,000 barrels of plutonium-contaminated wastes from nuclear weapons research and production. We recommend that the public use satellite-based fire detection data and fire intelligence information published by the US Forest Service to monitor the situation (see related post for instructions on how use it). From that we can “see” that the leading edge of the fire is a little more than three miles from Area G.
The good news is that the fire should slow down if and when it heads toward Area G because it will have to leave the mostly ponderosa forest into pinon and juniper country (which doesn’t crown fire like ponderosa). Also, the Lab has cleared trees and vegetation around Area G, and the fire would have to jump some major canyons just to get there.
So here’s hoping the fire doesn’t get anywhere close to Area G. But watch out if it does. The public should be concerned and really pay close attention. It might be a good time to take a road trip somewhere away from being downwind. This is one fire that cannot be underestimated.
Originally published on June 27, 2011 on the Nuclear Watch New Mexico site.

The Interdependence of Personal and Social Transformation by, Be Present This week’s article by Margherita Vacchiano and Arianna Robinson of Be Present, a Kindle Project grantee, is a perfect follow up to our post last week by Susan Strasburger. While Susan’s article explored the scope of looking at inner conflict, today’s article takes us through the journey of looking at personal transformation while doing the difficult work associated with the social justice movement. Not only does the article explore the honest challenges in this work, but it also points to the necessity of trudging through the inner work in order to make the social justice movement a sustainable one.
From collective experience, many of us know that fighting for the things we believe in - for social change and for justice - is work that not only tires but can also wane on the spirit. But what happens to the spirit of the movement? It wanes as well. Be Present encourages us to explore some of these elements and their interdependence. A careful balance of awareness and action is needed, and this article bring us along for the beginning of this journey.
Be Present, Inc. encourages people to be present in their lives – to be more effective leaders in creating wellbeing within themselves as well as in their families, organizations, and communities. They provide training on how to use the Be Present Empowerment Model® to move through the issues that divide and develop systems of support, strengthening the individual and collective capacity for social justice movement building. To learn more about be present and for information on their programs please visit their website: www.bepresent.org.
The Interdependence of Personal and Social Transformation
by Margherita Vacchiano and Arianna Robinson
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The social justice sector is on the verge of major change. The 2008 presidential election raised the visibility of community organizers; while 2012 inevitably will focus on re-energizing this base. We are in the midst of a significant transfer of leadership from one generation to another. Changing demographics are radically transforming organizations. At the same time, current and emerging leaders are calling for real change in how we work together. New strategies and tools are being sought after to strengthen a sector affected by decades of aggressive attacks on equity and justice. Organizations striving to increase their effectiveness are searching for ways to better partner with each other, and develop sustainable solutions and alliances where cooperation and equity thrive.
We know that creating organizations that reflect values of mutual respect, trust, and authentic partnership is not only the right thing to do, it is critical for stronger and more effective social justice movements. Whether intuitively, or as a result of extensive research, we understand that this goal is achievable through building genuine relationships between individuals, between individuals and their organization, and between organizations and their partners. In short, it’s about people effecting sustainable transformation.
The Process of Effecting Sustainable Transformation
Issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity, culture, language, religion, age, sexual orientation and gender identity drive our personal, organizational, social and political lives, and shape how we make decisions. They are woven through the fabric of our relationships and thereby have a critical impact on all of us, on all levels, everyday. Therefore we all are responsible for identifying how history and social contexts of these issues get encoded within us, and then externalized through our behaviors in our homes, schools, organizations, and communities – all of which comprise the systems we live in. If we are going to accomplish social transformation, then we must change how we are. We are, and must recognize ourselves as, an integral part of what is and what must be changed. When we do, we are better able to take responsibility and model a new way to promote peace and work toward justice.
Knowing oneself outside the distress of oppression[i] is an important element of this change. From self-knowledge, people can better listen to others in a conscious and present state[ii], make mindful choices, develop a practice of positive change, build trust, and work through challenges to build effective relationships and sustain true alliances[iii]. Leadership in this transformative process builds skills, knowledge, and abilities on three interconnected levels.
On the individual level, people learn how to strengthen self knowledge and ability to question, make connections, think creatively, take risks, reflect, make choices and collaborate with others. On the inter-group level, people learn how to dismantle stereotypes and myths, transform conflict, and increase collaborative work. On the institutional/community level, people learn how to transform policies, practices, and cultures to be more equitable and inclusive.
Teaching people how to develop and sustain these skills results in becoming more effective in thinking creatively, collaborating with others, dealing positively with challenging issues, and creating authentic partnerships. It also results in the ability of organizations to form strong coalitions based on trust. This comprehensive and expansive orientation to leadership is grounded in social justice principles and values. It creates transformative leaders – people who bring about fundamental change, moving successfully from personal to social transformation.
Margherita Vacchiano and Arianna Robinson are staff members of Be Present, Inc. Margherita is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) and serves as the Associate Director. Arianna is the National Network Leadership Administrative Coordinator. They work collectively with other staff members, the Board of Directors, regional organizing core group members, and organizational partners using the Be Present Empowerment Model® to support the movement of national and global social justice agendas.
[i] “Knowing oneself outside the distress of oppression” is one of three leadership realms of the Be Present Empowerment Model®.
[ii] “Listening to others in a conscious and present state” is the second leadership realm.
[iii] “Building effective relationships and sustaining true alliances” is the third leadership realm.

Peace and Paradox: Transforming Inner Conflict An article by Susan Strasburger
Throughout the past three months we’ve had a wide array of posts on the subject of conflict transformation. Our content has ranged from the political to the academic, and from media to the arts. All industries and fields have their own way of resolving conflict, some even have embedded ways to transform it. However, the more we are thinking about conflict transformation on a global scale, the more I am convinced that a primary personal approach to understanding conflict in one’s own life is an essential tool for every person.
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The approaches are varied. How I manage conflict with a family member is quite different from how I manage it with a co-worker. This is why I am so excited to have some original writing from communications expert, and Kindle Project friend, Susan Strasburger. Here she shares with us the subtle nuances of what transforming conflict on an inner level can look like. She takes us through some seemingly obvious revelations while addressing their importance in our lives.
Susan’s article, written specially for the Kindle blog, gives some phenomenal insights into how each of us can begin to look inward so that we can deal with the complex issues that surround us in our families, communities, and nations. She also shares some excellent resources for those who which to delve further.
Thank you Susan!
Peace and Paradox: Transforming Inner Conflict
by Susan Strasburger
“Peace….is the willingness to acknowledge that conflict will always exist, but it is how we handle it that matters” - Kindle Project Blog, April 2011
The how of living with, and moving through, conflict is what I have dedicated my life to – from high school civil rights activism to decades of organizational consulting, leadership coaching and couples counseling. In my experience, one intense and poignant challenge trumps all the others: Until we become just as committed and willing to live with and manage internal conflict, our passion and skill in resolving conflict with others will often prove insufficient. Sometimes we’re lucky, and we find others around us who are able to hold the complexity of multiple interests and feelings simultaneously, and subsequently can act as a mirror for us. But “trite” sayings often become popular or over-used because they are true: “Let peace begin with me.”
I can hear the outcries in response: “We don’t have the luxury or the time to do personal work.” “The urgency is too great; we have to stay focused on the transformation of _____ (the economy, women’s reproductive rights, etc.).”
Building on Kindle’s quote above, I’ll add Niels Bohr to the mix: "How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress."
When I am in “either/or” thinking about how I should act or respond in a situation, I am usually lost in my own internal conflict. It may not feel like conflict; in fact, it often feels familiar, comfortable and right. “Of course, I’m going to argue with this homophobic person in front of me; she’s wrong.”
Yet, if I am able to notice my assumptions and beliefs and be curious about my reactions as well as those of the others involved, there is indeed hope. This is the kind of hope that bears the fruit of authentic connection. Through authentic connection, we can either resolve our conflict or at least come together in shared understanding and anguish about the particular dilemma we’re facing. Mourning together is in fact one of the most reliable precursors to resolving an ongoing, seemingly entrenched conflict. Those of us who have witnessed or participated in restorative justice processes can attest to the profound transformation that occurs through such shared mourning.
What I’m on my cyber-soapbox about right now, however, is pre-emptive transformation; the kind that we take personal responsibility for, so that we can truly “walk the talk” of managing complexity within ourselves. We are then better equipped for navigating the external complexity of managing conflict with others. Those of us who work with groups in conflict need to hold even more complexity at one time – which is all the more reason for us to do our internal “housekeeping.”
This means continually practicing whatever methods we have discovered that work for us to increase our self-awareness, specifically in service to building our capacity to be present with seemingly opposing internal experiences. Can we identify and then be with both the pain and joy of a given moment, both the desire to run away and the longing to stay? Building this internal complexity “muscle,” we slowly but surely come to acknowledge that even in the face of an intensely gripping and perhaps self-righteous clarity about a particular topic, we have multiple feelings, thoughts and interests occurring at the same time. We become as familiar with this holding of complexity as we used to be of our habituated patterns of reactivity.
This internal awareness-building practice translates to more flexibility and conscious choice when in the midst of conflict. We have an increased ability to respond rather than react. We become more skillful in discerning which specific aspect of a conflict to attend to, moment to moment.
Such self-understanding and observation skills take time and commitment to build, especially since we humans are hardwired to make quick decisions for survival. The amygdalae, the primary ‘traffic controllers’ of our emotional reactions, are not set up to look for subtleties when we perceive a threat or danger. It sends the flight/fight chemicals through our nervous system immediately so that we can achieve safety as soon as possible. However, we also can learn to work with these physiological cues, so that we have more choice and power in any given situation.
In short (and once again, somewhat paradoxically), we become more flexible in our thinking and more rigorous in our choice-making. This builds connection and shared understanding rather than alienation and escalated misinterpretations.
Once we have the capacity to hold conflict internally, the actual conflict transformation skills in our toolkit become more potent. Generous, empathic listening is more possible, because we’re practicing this within ourselves. Authentic expression becomes more skillfully focused to meet the needs of the situation, rather than simply be in service to our own desires to be seen and understood. And finally, we are able to be more transparent and effective facilitators as we help others build understanding and incremental agreements without becoming “blindsided” by internal, hidden agendas.
This then speaks to why self-awareness practices are not a “luxury.” They form the foundation for creating the conditions of sustainable transformation.
I’ve found this inner journey to be agonizing at times; our familiar patterns don’t “like” to be challenged. Self-criticism sometimes clouds my sense of forward progress or perspective. But then, since I “walk my talk” about holding complexity, I can just as assuredly name the confidence, wonder, contribution and gratification that have resulted from staying the course of “living with complexity.”
Returning to the initial Kindle quote: Below are some links for further reflection on “how we handle” the “conflict that will always exist” within us, as well as with others, acknowledging that it’s “how we handle it that matters”.
Resources and Links
Nonviolent Communication: A set of principles and practices that I’ve found useful both personally and with clients, in supporting more self-awareness, authentic self-expression and connection:
• www.cnvc.org
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication
• A site with excellent information and handouts about Nonviolent Communication. Click here.
Ladder of Inference: How to create more self-awareness of our filters, assumptions, beliefs.
• To download an excellent resource on the Ladder of Inference please click here.
To contact Susan and to learn more about her work, please visit her site: www.susanstrasburger.com

Combat Paper Project This week on the Kindle Project Blog we are grateful to receive a submission from one of our grantees, Combat Paper Project; an organization that is dedicated to playing a creative role in helping returning veterans begin to unravel and face the trauma that they may have been exposed to while in the field. Combat Paper Project develops workshops all over the country bringing together veterans and non-veterans to dialog, learn and create paper art from used military uniforms as a part of a healing process.
I am, personally, deeply touched by this project and know the importance for making space and welcoming vets back into ANY society. I have my own close experience of knowing the grief and hardship it takes to integrate back into life and the major journey that many vets face when returning from combat.
I have traveled this road alongside my father. He was a green beret drafted to Vietnam in 1968. I have watched him struggle. I’ve listened to his stories. I know his regrets. I know his heart and I know its wounds. My father being a vet has impacted my life and my story immensely. I have felt anger, pain, and have experienced the collective pain as well. I am lucky to have a father when many children of veterans are robbed of this relationship for numerous reasons. I have hated the accepted infrastructure that still believes that war is a way to solve any conflict. In my observation it only causes more problems. Until we choose a new way, I am in complete support of the healing journey we all must face to find peace.
I am thankful to Combat Paper Project for introducing a space for creativity to help give voice and transform the story that veterans may carry. It can be a heavy load.
- Cate Coslor, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Kindle Project
Reflections by Combat Paper Project
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As we move into the summer this year, many of us plan for upcoming travels and adventures. Some of us are anticipating the long overdue break from work or planning a big move to begin a new career or our university studies. The summer can bring so much renewal and excitement for what is just over the next pass. It feels like a chance to restart, but there are also the complexities of political affairs, of workplace stability, family disruption and conflicts abound that still murmur in the background of our daily lives. It feels possible with the practice we have had over the past decade to compartmentalize the distress and uncertainty that these contemporary issues can arouse. We strive to turn off the background and seek happiness in our lives in spite of the magnitude of issues that weigh down our ability to be at peace, to be happy. We can certainly work to discover this place within ourselves, and often it is here that our greatest change occurs. We can also discover a contemplative peace through the activation of a group, where our own involvement is needed.
Combat Paper Project is designed to unite communities--veteran and non-veteran--through dialogue and paper/printmaking methods with the goal of connecting people with expressive tools to help unpack the complex associations and diverse emotions that are carried through the experience of military service. Whether it begins with an individual, a small group, a gallery exhibition or a college classroom, the exchange that takes place is humbling, moving, and inspiring; the narrative spans generations, perspectives, regions, ideologies, beliefs, and assumptions. Everyone’s story has a place.
We facilitate informal studio gatherings to structured formats around the country from college campuses to art centers, galleries, and outdoor public spaces, transforming military uniforms that were once worn in military service into handmade paper. The art that we create is a deconstruction of the societal narrative, the collective story, meanwhile, empowering the individual voice. It is here that we believe a compassionate response is born. In the past four years we have conducted fifty workshops in nineteen states, collaborating with hundreds of veterans including those from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq. Some have served in combat, some in support, and some on multiple tours. The lineage of these fibers is carried in every batch of paper made thereafter. As more uniforms are liberated, the narrative of the paper becomes more diverse, carrying the many layers of story interwoven in the fibers of our paper.
Through these collaborations, the communities that are fielding the changes that conflict brings home may also find an understanding, and a way of participating. When we use the artistic practice with others to face the overwhelming tragedies of our time with patience and reverence, our own words and intentions become clear. We inform our perceptions of militarism, warfare and society. We learn that providing an environment that is welcoming, creative and respectful is more productive and honest. We can face the conflicts as an individual, but are reinforced when we are part of a greater whole. The progress within each other is becoming a change within our community, one uniform at a time.
- Combat Papermakers

Kindle Project Responds to Pro-Chevron Imposter Journalist Last week something new and suspect happened here at Kindle. We received an email from a man named Alex alleging that he was writing an article covering who funded Amazon Watch in their lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador. In the course of his investigation, Alex traced Amazon Watch's major donors, which includes Kindle Project. Alex questioned whether it was time for us to reevaluate our commitment to Amazon Watch, proclaiming unfounded allegations of fraud in their case against Chevron. He inquired, “Do you still support and fund Amazon Watch even after serious questions about the behavior of the plaintiffs’ leading lawyers have been raised?”
After some research, we found that Alex was preparing this article for his personal blog clumsily entitled, Chevron Ecuador Lawsuit Clearinghouse. Since receiving this letter Alex’s identity has been exposed in the press as the hubby of a prominent Chevron executive, and not in fact, a journalist whatsoever. Whether Alex is directly paid by Chevron to do this dirty work or if he is simply an industry renegade out to conduct a personal smear campaign, we may never know. Regardless, we consider this type of communication to be an intimidation tactic orchestrated in poor taste. Surely such bullying was meant to shake our partnership with Amazon Watch, when in fact, it only reinforced it.
Late Tuesday afternoon we sent Alex our response. By Wednesday morning, not only had his sordid story hit the press, but his blog had suddenly disappeared off the web entirely. The only crumb left of it’s presence was a notice from Wordpress stating that the authors had deleted the blog.
As strategies on all fronts have been amped up lately, this is a pivotal time. As funders, Kindle believes that now more than ever, we must be bold with our grantmaking. We must be vocal about who we support and why. We must form new and strong alliances with each other. Donors and foundation peeps: to conspire and dream about funding strategies contact Kindle Co-Director Sadaf Cameron: sadaf@kindleproject.org.
For more information on this issue and to support this work please visit: Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, and the Amazon Defense Coalition.
Below you’ll find our response letter and the original email from Alex. Scroll down to see link to media coverage of this issue.
Kindle Project Response to Inquiry Regarding Amazon Watch
Dear Alex,
Thank you for this unique opportunity to reiterate our support of the tremendous efforts of Amazon Watch and other groups working relentlessly to stand up against the activities of Chevron and other such corporate profiteers. Without your close attention to detail and your following of the paper trail of support to Amazon Watch, we may have not been able to utilize your platform to get our statement out to an otherwise neglected audience. In the name of unbiased journalism and free speech, well done.
Kindle Project is proud to support the work of Amazon Watch in their fight to protect the environment and people of Ecuador. We are humbled to have collaborated with Amazon Watch in their unwavering stance against Chevron and its conspirators despite intimidation, parsimonious intelligence, and trivial pursuits, such as yours, to discredit their ongoing work. Amazon Watch has, and continues to, set a precedent of success, as was demonstrated in February when Judge Nicolás Zambrano made history by ordering Chevron to pay $9 billion in human health and environmental damages from its devastating contamination in Ecuador. This is by far one of the largest known legal wins in favor of environmental protection.
Your inquiry satisfies a fundamental question underlying all our funding decisions: How effective is the work of our partnerships? The time you have spent to investigate and contact funders, such as ourselves, is an absolute affirmation that our collective strategy, hard work, and dedication pays off.
Our vision towards social and environmental justice as a whole has been reinvigorated. The commitment to our mission and our partners has only been strengthened. We will continue to find, fund, and collaborate with groups such as Amazon Watch and strive harder to connect with other funding sources that will join us in our continued efforts.
Should you have questions or concerns, you can contact either one of us directly via email.
Cheers,
Sadaf Cameron – Co-Founder/Co-Director
Arianne Shaffer – Media and Project Coordinator
Original Email from Alex - Subject line: Your Large Donation to Amazon Watch
Hello,
I’m writing an article highlighting Amazon Watch’s top donors which will include mentioning The Kindle Project. As you know, for many years Amazon Watch has been leading the campaign against Chevron regarding its alleged pollution in Ecuador. Despite serious allegations of fraud against the plaintiffs in the case, Amazon Watch has ramped up its activism against Chevron. My article highlights organizations such as yours and questions whether it is time to reevaluate your support for Amazon Watch. Below are just some of the points I will raise in my article. My simple question for you is: Do you still support and fund Amazon Watch even after serious questions about the behavior of the plaintiffs’ leading lawyers have been raised?
For example, Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch lectures Steven Donziger in a meeting that discuses the deployment of a private army to intimidate the Ecuadorian judge presiding over the case against Chevron: “I just want you to know that it’s illegal to conspire to break the law.” This quote comes from an outtake of the documentary film Crude, in which Donziger meets with Soltani and other team members to discuss pressure tactics that they would use on the Ecuadorian court to pressure the judge to rule in their favor.
Link to video clips including the outtake of the quote above: http://chevronecuadorlawsuitclearinghouse.wordpress.com/crude-outtakes/
At Chevron’s last shareholders’ meeting, the company shot back forcefully with a video that effectively dismantles the allegations being made by Amazon Watch and the plaintiffs’ lawyers. You can view it here: http://chevronecuadorlawsuitclearinghouse.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/activist-ignore-evidence-to-back-shakedown-suit-against-chevron/
The Wall Street Journal calls the case against Chevron a “Shakedown” and a “comedy of legal errors against Chevron.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703652104576121941625806096.html
For years, serious questions about Donziger’s activities in Ecuador have been repeatedly raised. In a recent ruling, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. district court for the Southern District of New York found "substantial evidence that Donziger and others working with him have improperly (1) pressured, intimidated, and influenced Ecuadorian courts, (2) colluded with Donziger and with Cabrera to substitute their own biased work product for the neutral and impartial assessment that Cabrera was appointed to produce, [and] (3) concealed that role..." Other rulings include a federal court in the Western District of North Carolina which found that "what has blatantly occurred in this matter would in fact be considered fraud by any court," and regarding the conduct of the plaintiff’s lawyers, a District Court in the District of New Jersey found that their activities could not constitute "anything but a fraud on the judicial proceeding" in the Lago Agrio lawsuit.
On March 7, 2011, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction order against the RICO defendants (Donziger and other lawyers and consultants). The preliminary injunction order "enjoins and restrains, pending the final determination of the RICO case, defendants from receiving benefit from, directly or indirectly, commencing, prosecuting, advancing in any way, or receiving benefit from any action or proceeding, outside the Republic of Ecuador, for recognition or enforcement of the judgment rendered against Chevron, or any other judgment that hereafter may be rendered in the Lago Agrio Case by that court or by any other court in Ecuador, or for prejudgment seizure or attachment of assets, outside the Republic of Ecuador, based upon judgment."
And last November, Judge Kaplan wrote that "Donziger's own words raise substantial questions as to his possible criminal liability and amenability to professional discipline."
On February 9, 2011, an international panel of arbitrators presiding in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ordered the Republic of Ecuador to “take all measures at its disposal to suspend or cause to be suspended the enforcement or recognition within and without Ecuador of any judgment” against Chevron in the Lago Agrio case pending further order or award from the international tribunal.
In light of all this and other unethical behavior by the team suing Chevron, Amazon Watch continues its anti-Chevron campaign. The basic question that my article attempts to answer is: Does The Kindle Project endorse the tactics used by plaintiff’s lawyers, their PR consultants and groups like Amazon Watch? I’m looking forward to your response.
Best,
Alex
Recent Media Coverage of Alex Thorne and This Issue:
From the Herald Online
From Yahoo News
From Triple Pundit
From Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources
Image of Soltani sourced from Amazon Watch website.

Documentary as a Tool for Conflict Transformation: Playground by Director Libby Spears Featuring Libby Spears’ film this week is not just enthusing, it’s also essential. The subject matter of her current film, Playground, is one that is often ignored, buried and cast aside. The issue of child trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and minors in North America is not something we’re accustomed to hearing about. Understandably, there has been a lot of press in past years about these issues in South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines. However, it is a rarity that we find any media coverage of these pressing issues on our own continent.
[caption id="attachment_1078" align="alignleft" width="174"] Director, Libby Spears[/caption]When working with young women in Montreal, Quebec I was confronted with the harsh reality that our small island had a very serious problem with the trafficking of young women. I met with one young woman who was being coaxed into this industry by her boyfriend at the time. Through education at her school and through the programs we were doing together through the YWCA Montreal, she began to understand what human trafficking was and what grave outcomes it could have for her. She was able to leave that abusive situation with the right support. Her initial introduction to this issue was through a film her teacher showed her.
Films like Libby’s take these horrendously systemic conflicts and encourage us not only to educate ourselves, and face the problem head on, but they also call us to action. This week I was lucky enough to catch up with Libby as she screens her film through the United States. We spoke about what it means to use film as a tool for conflict transformation and the potential positive implications of this.
Read our discussion below, watch the trailer for Playground and visit the website to see how you can get involved. Also, for those of you in Santa Fe be sure to visit the Santa Fe Art Institute on June 3rd, for a screening of Playground.
The Playground Project directed by Libby Spears from Red Flag Magazine on Vimeo.
Kindle Project: Do you see film as being a tool for conflict transformation?
Libby Spears: Absolutely, the film is already having a tremendous impact on the issue. As a result of seeing a rough cut of the film a year ago at Senator Boxer's home, Senator Wyden & Senator Conryn co-sponsored the first piece of federal legislation for domestic minor victims of trafficking - the Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act. This is a bipartisan issue, and one of the few that both sides of the table can come together on. This law will do many things, but most importantly, it decriminalizes children and prevents them from being arrested for "prostitution".
Kindle Project: If so, what films, in your opinion, are good examples of this?
Libby Spears: An Inconvenient Truth is a great example of a film that changed the landscape for the environmental movement. Prior to it's release, and the supporting advocacy campaign lead by Al Gore, most of world was in denial about the affects of global warming.
Kindle Project: Do you have any plans to use the film in any education settings?
Libby Spears: We plan to create an entire movement around the film with a campaign called 13, part of which includes an educational component. (Keep informed of this project by checking back on the film's website.)
Kindle Project: Have you had a powerful response to your film so far? Do you find that more Americans are getting involved in this issue after seeing your film, and is that your hope?
Libby Spears: No one who sees the film walks away unchanged. 80% of the people who see the film are learning about this issue for the first time. Most are aware that it is happening in developing countries, but are completely shocked that there is a first world version. Awareness itself, is a very tangible thing, as one has to understand the problem before devising a solution.
My hope is that we will start caring as much about the plights of American children as we do about children in developing countries.
Kindle Project: Are there any policies you'd hope to affect with your film?
Libby Spears: The film has already been instrumental in the creation of the first federal bill and we plan to continue to see this through until the vote.
Additionally, we are partnering with ECPAT in our campaign to help adopt Safe Harbor Laws in every state. So far, there are only a few states who have passed these laws.
Kindle Project: Do you see any relation between the hypersexualization of youth with the pervasiveness of child trafficking in North America?
Libby Spears: Absolutely. The fact that we normalize sexualizing young teens constantly in our advertising (such as American Apparel, with 14 year girls dressed and posed provocatively on giant billboards) is a blatant confirmation to the deviant minded that yes, it is okay to view these girls as sexual objects.

United Roots Transforming conflict, when it’s in your face, often violent and without reprieve, can seem impossible. Few have the sustained energy that the United Roots crew does when facing such challenges in their community. With careful determination, commitment, foresight, and passion, United Roots has been responding to violence, conflict, and the needs of the youth in Oakland for several years.
United Roots Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Galen Peterson writes candidly about the rewards and difficulties in his work. We had the chance to visit with Galen at the United Roots space in Oakland, CA this past April. The impression he left on us was tremendous.
Here you’ll read about their work and also get a sense of United Roots from this slick video by Storytellers for Good.
“Youth in Oakland, California, create healing opportunities at United Roots”
By Galen Peterson, Co-Founder & Co-Executive Director of United Roots
Have you ever tried to fall asleep at night while listening to the sound of machine gunfire coming from the street in front of your house? Have you ever walked out your front door only to barely avoid getting shot as your neighbor falls to the ground, bleeding to death?
I have been living and working in Oakland for almost a decade now and these things happen almost everyday. They are common inner-city occurrences, especially in communities with high unemployment rates. With over 10 years experience in social and environmental justice change work throughout the West Coast (from Seattle to Los Angeles), intense struggles like these are not new to me, but Oakland became my home because the Bay Area is where my family is from and of all the places I had worked there seemed to be the greatest potential for change.
When I met Simmy Makhijani (fellow Co-founder and Co-Executive Director of United Roots), there was an urgency to take our work to the next level. Together, we worked hard to think about how issues seriously impacting Oakland could be addressed differently, not just in the immediate, but also in the long-term. United Roots was founded by us and a coalition of youth arts organizations doing social and environmental justice work in the Bay Area, including but not limited to Art in Action, Colored Ink, Community Rejuvenation Project and Grind for the Green. The purpose for founding this new community center was to create a shared space, like a hub, for organizations, community campaigns and local businesses to offer direct-services to youth and young adults in Oakland. We specifically reach out to youth from the streets and other disenfranchised youth from street culture and give them the chance to explore healing practices, artistic development, alternative educational pathways, career opportunities, and eco-sustainability. We do this by offering classes and programs in media and performing arts so that youth build skills while also sharing their personal experiences in artistic ways. But our real goal, once we have the resources, is to incubate youth businesses and offer a full curriculum in professional development training for workforce entry.
In order to directly address violence in Oakland, myself and other community members work alongside youth, hip-hop artists and turf leaders that are down to make change. The movement has actually been less about creating mainstream ideas of peace and more about building unity to work towards real solutions, which is where real peace might have a chance. However, even with strong relationships coming together, our work has hardly been a success story. We’re dealing with a societal system that is plagued by hundreds of years of institutional violence and oppression. Further, all of our projects have seriously struggled with funding since the 2008 economic recession, making our ability to serve youth effectively even harder than it already was. Oakland, as a result, has been struggling on so many different levels since then, from riots associated with the police killing of a young unarmed man to mass layoffs and housing foreclosures. Many of the youth I was working with in 2008 who were doing relatively well ended up back on the streets at the same time a lot of community service organizations closed down. It was a harsh and disheartening experience to watch my little brothers and sisters get caught up again and because of the lack of resources and opportunities I was not able to provide these youth with the things they needed to continue on their path to success.
Opening United Roots was a necessary next step. We needed to create a safe space we could lead from the ground up with all of our allies and friends working together. Even after launching, United Roots would still take time before it was fully running, so again we had to go through another challenging period where the youth we worked continued to get caught up in the streets. However, there was a team of youth I mentored that really stepped up to help build the Center, like Jhamel Robinson and Olondis Walker. Since opening, I watched Jhamel start his own graphic design company and Olondis create his own music distribution and music video production company. They are becoming role models for the new youth that come to United Roots who feel inspired to start their own local business ventures as a result. Our aspiration at United Roots is to support these youth in socially innovative ways so that ultimately not only do they start social ventures that provide employment, education, and enterprise locally, but they also reinvest resources back into the communities that need them most so that the longer term change we are invested in has some hope in being realized. For more info or to get involved: www.unitedrootsoakland.org
Short Film about United Roots by Storytellers for Good from United Roots/ Oakland PAYV Acad. on Vimeo.
www.unitedrootsoakland.org

Coal Cares : Yes Labs and Coal is Killing Kids take on Peabody Transforming conflict is not always an overt process. Sometimes, our most pressing local and macro issues call for back door routes and subversive actions. Sometimes, we need to play tricks and make mirage. Kindle grantee, The Yes Men, are by far the leading craft masters behind this transformative trickery. Through identity correction, the Yes Men impersonate corporate criminals and political elites in order to publicly humiliate them and their agendas, while simultaneously exposing the policies that should be put in place to move us closer to a just world.
The Yes Labs, brainchild of the Yes Men, is a think-tank which incubates creative gags with other activists to carry out media campaigns that aim to embarrass morally loose decision makers, confuse corporations, change nasty regulation, and create conversation and debate.
Their most recent collaboration with Coal is Killing Kids (CKK), a grassroots coalition taking on the coal industry, made a complete mockery of Peabody Energy. The complex hoax moved quickly in several directions. Strategically timed to coincide with Asthma Awareness Month, Coal Cares launched its website/campaign this week, offering free asthma inhalers designed for children. The Puff Puff inhalers included homage to Justin Bieber and it’s very own diamond bling inhaler.
Coal Cares released a series of fake press releases and petitions, confusing the media throughout the day. The fake petition expresses outrage over the Coal Cares initiative. Although the release is a fake, it already has 147 signatures, and CKK is encouraging people to sign it to keep the conversation going.
Media outlets have been covering all angles of the hoax. Read more at Wired, Huffington Post, Poynter, and Rolling Stone.
Just today, the Yes Labs and CKK publicly shared their response letter to a legal threat from lawyers working on behalf of Peabody Energy. Both letters can be found here.
For more information on the Yes Labs, please visit http://yeslab.org/ and keep checking back in our comments section for updates.
All photos were taken from the Coal Cares site.

A Study from Salam Institute for Peace and Justice In the fields of Conflict Transformation and Peace Education there is a slowly emerging trend in the area of forgiveness and Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer is at the forefront of this essential work. His team at the Salam Institute for Peace and Justice have been conducting a revelatory study on the act of forgiveness amongst teachers in four Middle Eastern countries.
Historically, forgiveness has been an integrated part of many peace processes. However, in current academia and peace movements this essential step in the process of reconciliation, transformation and education has been overlooked. Abu-Nimer’s work is paving the way for forgiveness to be included and regarded as a fundamental step in these fields and we are at once impressed and humbled by his work.
[caption id="attachment_987" align="alignleft" width="100"] Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer[/caption]
Below is a short write-up about the work Abu-Nimer and his team are doing. Keep checking back in the coming months for our more in depth look at the Institute’s work and it’s impact and application in the field. Many thanks to the Salam Institute team.
•••
The field of reconciliation, empathy, and forgiveness has been an emerging one in peace education and conflict resolution. A new research study focusing on examining attitudes and perceptions held by teachers about forgiveness in Middle Eastern cultures is conducted by Director of SI Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer and Dr. Ilham from George Mason University.
The study, which is funded by the Kindle Project, aims to shed light on the understanding of forgiveness by examining responses to situations requiring forgiving amongst teachers in four countries in the Middle East, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. The research study addresses the questions regarding the conditions that support attitudes of forgiveness, the major cultural values and beliefs that encourage or obstruct the act of forgiveness, and finally, the role educators play in teaching and promoting forgiveness in Arab culture.
By collecting data from Palestinian, Egyptian, Lebanese and Jordanian teachers through surveys and interviews, the study will increase the working knowledge in the field of peace and conflict resolution and more specifically the idea of forgiving in the Arab culture. It will also shed light on factors and variables influencing our understanding and willingness to forgive within specific social and cultural contexts . The research outcomes will have implications for conflict interventions in the Arab context and among educators. Moreover, the results of the study can guide professionals in peace education and curriculum design to construct a research based comprehensive curriculum teaching for forgiveness in Arab classrooms.
For more information please visit the Salam Institute website here.

Skateistan Opens Second Facility in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan Skateistan Gets Land in Mazar-e-Sharif
After months of planning, Skateistan has been donated a large plot of land in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, to build its second facility. On May 2 Governor Atta Mohammed Noor of Balkh province and the Afghan National Olympic Committee (ANOC) donated the land, which is 3 jerib (6000 m2) and 4km from the centre of Mazar. The handover ceremony took place the following day, and plans are to break ground within a few weeks.Skateistan Mazar will be larger than Kabul, with plans to teach over 1000 students weekly. The design for the L-shaped facility includes a skatepark, a multisport gym, two classrooms, a library and two student workshops (one for textiles, one for wood/metal/clay work). The German Federal Foreign Office has committed to funding construction of the Mazar facility.
The new Skateistan facility will be located within the 4.5 jerib (9000 m2) of Olympic grounds which will shortly be signed over by Balkh province to the ANOC. In 2009, the Olympic Committee's president, General Zahir Aghbar, donated land to Skateistan for the current facility in Kabul. Plans are to complete the facility by the end of 2011, and ideally have operations begin by 2012.
Skateistan is currently seeking one or more major donors to fund the first two years of running costs at the new facility.
This article was originally published on the Skateistan website. Please view it here.

Kindle Special Feature: Reflections from Campameñto Paz by Maria Alejandra Escalante and Anastasia Vladimirova In late February, I had the honor of traveling to El Salvador to witness and partake in Campameñto Paz. The brainchild of Selena Sermeno, Campameñto Paz brings together brilliant young people from all over the world to foster a positive environment for El Salvadoran youth to constructively engage in conflict. I had the privilege of nurturing friendships with many of these young people. As such, I am pleased to share with you the reflections from Maria Alejandra Escalante, from Columbia and Anastasia Vladimirova, from Russia. Both young women are graduating this year from United World College Costa Rica. Thank you Anastasia and Maria for your reflections.
- Sadaf Cameron, Kindle Project Co-Director
Reflections from Maria Alejandra Escalante
Days charged with plentiful emotions. That is how our days were in Project Week in El Salvador. That country that in a map seems to be right besides Costa Rica, becomes far, far away after 42 hours in a bus. In all honesty, El Salvador was not a place on my top countries to visit, for it simply belonged to the sum of countries that do not have a lot of pages in History books. That was a huge mistake. There should be thousands, millions of books that talk about the uncountable value of Salvadorian people, their hospitality, the contrasts, the cruelty in which they lived in for so many years, the artist Fernando Llort, La Palma and its facade drawings that are distinguished as national patrimony. Or maybe what we just needed was a visit to this country.
We reached El Salvador through choosing one of the optional projects we can develop in a week as part of the IB diploma in the United World College Costa Rica. The project's aim was to share concepts about pacific conflict resolution with Salvadorian youth, so they could have a chance to avoid entering the wave of violence that chases them around since the end of the Civil War in 1992. One of the special features of the project is that we were an inter-generational group, characteristic which made the experience revolve around a full learning from Reese and Anne, a beautiful couple from New Mexico, California who decided to collaborate in the project; from Sadaf who invested time, energy and resources from her own Kindle Project to support our project; from the two drivers who helped us in transportation, one who used to belong to the guerrilla FMLN and the other who was part of the militia in the times of the Civil War. As it was a movie, these two men shook their hands, hugged each other and knowing that the chances that they had pointed each other with their guns during the War were high, decided to close the door of that excruciating past. And also the learnings coming from Selena and Susan, the coordinators of the project, and most importantly two strong and admirable women that introduced us to an essential principle: we all have the skills to help others who need us. And of course I could not go on without mentioning the learnings that came from working with children from 12 to 17 years, whose families have been drastically changed because of the War consequences that affected almost 75% of the Salvadorian population.
During the first days of the week we visited key places to understand the previous development of El Salvador before the War exploded in 1980 and after it was installed in the country for more than a decade. We talked with the Carmelita nuns who are still constant followers of who is nowadays one of the most important figures in El Salvador: Monseñor Romero. We talked with Oscar, an ex militant who kindly let us stay in his home where we had a panoramic view of San Salvador. We understood Oscar's point of view; we understood that he regrets his participation in the War, but he is doing everything he can to repair that damage caused. We listened to a journalist talking about the effects that the War had on the country's economy and how, for him, the only possible way to reconstruct El Salvador is to adopt a social democratic system, as the savage capitalism is not going to end. At least in his life time.
While we filled our hearts and minds with historic information and hundreds of images that at some point made us all cry, our duty was to plan out the camp with the Salvadorian kids in the province of Chalantenango. I think that we designed at least 47 different games for the camp and as we had to try them out, we had repetitive moments of fun each day.
The camp itself aroused all kinds of feelings that are hard to put into plain words. These children had stories of abandonment, suicides, assassinations, violations and all sort of problems that were not part of our lives. Some of them would not make eye contact with us, some of them trembled when they had to talk in public. They felt so grateful towards us for everything we did that I started to feel a bit uncomfortable thinking that I was gaining more than what I was giving out, when actually all the attention that we put into these kids is not more but a right they deserve to claim. It was hard to brake the tension and create an “espacio de confianza”, as Selena taught us, so they could tell us about their lives. But irrationally, I think it was because of their innocence and good heart, in less than two days the kids hugged us, cried in front of us and told us that some of them were afraid of the maras, of a new war and their mothers not coming back from the United States to be with them.
I do not know how big was our impact in the Salvadorian youth. I know that for at least three days, they felt they owned a place where to play with a ball and work with play dough and crayons and be listened. The truth is that all we did is based upon an act of faith. And I believe that we began a thread of the idea that they are free to be whatever they want to be and that they deserve happiness on top of all.
The impact that the experience has on us is perhaps deeper than I thought it would be. We are inspired by the people who have dedicated their lives to construct a better society. And if there is something that I can be sure of, is that I do not want to leave all this thoughts in the mere air as it usually happens.
Reflections from Anastasia Vladimirova
There are moments in our lives that change us. There are moments that give us the direction. There are moments that make us question. A week that we have spent in El Salvador doing the project with the Salvadorian youth was full of moments that changed me, made me question the reality and gave me the direction for my future life at the same time.
I set heart on peace and conflict studies in UWCCR, and owing to the wonderful opportunities that our college offers to its students, I have realized one of my prior objectives - to go to the post conflict country and immerse myself in its atmosphere, to experience the real post conflict state of the society. Having never gone through a conflict, having neither experienced the consequences of the war, I could have only imagined what it was like, I could only guess and assume. However, the feeling was not the primary reason for going to El Salvador.
I have always believed that we possess the essential and vital, in some sense, traits – compassion and empathy. I perceived them as spontaneous true feelings which occur as an emotional response to person’s story or a confession. I thought of empathy as a strong connection that can appear between people and how it can unite them.
Meeting Selena, Susan and the whole team made me realize that we can build shelters for others with our empathy and that we can heal with our presence. This is what we have been doing during the camp in La Palma. And I hope with my whole heart we succeeded. It all started with fear of the unknown. Everything and almost everyone was unknown. What would the reaction be? What if I am not open enough to build a shelter for the kids? What if they will not trust me? In like manner, the kids were undoubtedly scared and yet excited. It took us a while before they finally started to look into our eyes and we felt they were ready to accept us as more than just strangers form all over the world. I remember what Selena told us: we can lead with our vulnerability. I believe she was right, because we shared a very common vulnerability within the group – our Spanish was not good enough to fluently talk about things like war, loss, fears, dreams, hopes and future. From my own experience, struggling with my clear inability to be as good as a native Spanish speaker, I can say, that vulnerability can appear to be the very feature that enables us to build the trust and security between us and these young people. You start feeling the closeness. Although we spent only 3 days with the young people at the camp, on the night of the second day, we felt as if we have known them for very long time. I often thought that I had become a part of this experience, as if I could look upon myself and learn from my own self. I have realized what the magic of connection is. I learnt that building “espacio de confianza” is a very delicate and difficult work. It is a demanding work where empathy is a crucial element. It is definitely the essential work that has to be done to restore trust and give the new hope to people in any post-conflict society.
[caption id="attachment_958" align="aligncenter" width="665"] Maria is on the left, Anastasia is second from the right.[/caption]

Aman Mojadidi featured in The Wall Street Journal One of our Makers Muse Grantees, Aman Mojadidi was recently featured in an online article in the Wall Street Journal. His work innately embodies a creative expression of Conflict Transformation in action.
Please read the article here.

Adam Jonas Horowitz: Proving Grounds Below is an interview by Julia Goldberg from the Santa Fe Reporter. It was published on March 30, however, we wanted to share it here for those of you who may not have seen it. Adam is a Kindle grantee working on a timely and impressive film with essential information and previously unshared stories from the Marshall Islands. Please read the interview below, and keep checking back with our blog because soon we'll have a full feature on Adam and his work.
For original article please click here
US nuclear testing occured in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, during which time the US detonated 67 nuclear bombs, including the 1954 “Bravo” test, which was larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Artist and documentary filmmaker Adam Horowitz first went to the Marshall Islands in 1986 and made a 16 mm film, Home on the Range, about nuclear testing in the area. He is in the final stages of completing a second documentary, with funding from Public Broadcasting Service national, about the environmental and human health consequences to the people of the Marshall Islands. He can be reached at primordialsoupcompany@gmail.com.
SFR: How did this project start in 1986?
AH: I was living here and I was working in the film business, in feature films, and I was fascinated and horrified by the fact of living next to Los Alamos [National] Laboratory…I became obsessed with the bomb and its implications in so many realms of society. I started researching the lab and the history of the bomb and found out they had tested 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands. And I looked into the Marshall Islands and the results of this testing and thought, ‘I should go make a film there.’ It is fascinating to me because the Marshall Islands is paradise. It’s our idea of what paradise looks like: white sand beaches and coconut palms and islanders in outrigger canoes. The idea of blowing up hydrogen bombs in paradise is a symbolic metaphor and a microcosm of what we have done to the Earth.
You first interviewed numerous survivors while making your first film, Home on the Range?
Yes, I met many survivors of nuclear testing who told me they thought they had been experimented on and they had been exposed to radiation from these bombs on purpose, but…there was no documentary proof at that time. [When I returned in 2005], they had documentary proof that they had gotten in the ’90s under the [President Bill] Clinton administration—Clinton ordered the release of classified documents about nuclear testing—and among them were a bunch of documents that seemed to be the smoking gun that proved people were deliberately exposed in the Marshall Islands to see the effects of radiation. And the more I looked into it, I was convinced this was an important and untold story.
The film’s working title, Nuclear Savage, is taken from a government propaganda film?
It may not be the final title, but there are a lot of documents and government films I made use of that refer to the islanders as savages, and kind of shocking, racist government newsreels that refer to them as happy, amenable savages and comparing them to laboratory mice.
The footage you showed me, the interviews with survivors, is brutal.
It’s horrendous what happened to these people. One woman says her first child came out looking like a bunch of grapes and her second child had no bones and, she said…looked like a jellyfish. There are stories of babies they couldn’t tell if they were boys or girls, but the babies had a tail… here in paradise, these science fiction horror stories that are just beyond belief, beyond imagination. One of the reasons the US used them as experiments is because they had no voice; they had no political power; they were islanders in the middle of the pacific with no political status. A lot of them have been going to Washington for years trying to get some kind of disclosure, trying to get health care and clean up of their contaminated islands. They have some allies in Congress, but mostly they have lost their battle, and a lot of them have given up fighting because they have been fighting for so many years [that], at some point, they just have to move on with their lives.
Has it been surprising to have radiation poisoning become part of the national discussion as a result of the tsunami in Japan?
It’s surprising and it’s horrifying, and yet maybe what’s happening now in Japan will help us wake up and look at things we haven’t wanted to look at. For the last few years, Los Alamos has been in the process of building a new plutonium processing facility…to build new pits for new nuclear weapons, and it’s built on top of earthquake faults…and just like everything the lab does, it sails right through. The environmental impact reports say, ‘Well, the earthquake danger is small, and that’s not a factor.’ That’s just what they said in Japan about those nuclear reactors: ‘Oh, it’s safe; nothing can happen.’ And of course, in their hubris, they have been proven disastrously wrong.

Reflections on the Mideast Revolutions by Kindle Project Friend, Hassan El Menyawi
I first met Hassan six years ago when Sadaf, Kindle’s Co-Director, and I were studying at the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. Hassan was a professor in the International Law and Human Rights Department, and was also my thesis adviser. Hassan’s expertise, wisdom, creative teaching methods and cutting edge academic activism paved the way for many of us to push our ideas further and to more deeply reflect on our studies. In turn, our views of peace and human rights were shifting, becoming more grounded, broader and more radical.
Hassan is a tremendous advocate for gay rights to be integrated into the human rights framework. Not surprisingly, he’s been met with resistance and great challenge. But this winter a new door opened for him and for all of us in the wake of Egypt’s revolution. In the article below (originally published on March 1, 2011 on The Edge on the Net), we get to see inside Hassan’s process as his home country experienced unprecedented change.
As we are all witnessing waves of democracy movements in the Middle East, it is of utmost importance to push for universal human rights. Through this vulnerable and incredibly intelligent writing and activism, Hassan demonstrates a model for conflict transformation in action. Thank you Hassan for sharing this work with us. You are an inspiration to all of us.
[caption id="attachment_912" align="alignleft" width="251"] Hassan El Menyawi[/caption]
Egyptian Gay-Rights Expert Reflects on the Mideast Revolutions
by Hassan El Menyawi
From the distance of exile, I have watched the news from the Middle East on my laptop in Brooklyn. I have alternately felt inspiration, anxiety, and bewilderment. This is a different Middle East from the one I knew in my youth.
Years ago, in Egypt, on the smallest of scales, I had sought the kind of movement that we now see across the Middle East. I spoke out for gay rights and human rights, and tried to recruit others to my cause. I recall pleading with people to speak out against the dictatorship -- to speak truth to power. Instead, murmurs. Whispers. "But we cannot speak, he will round us up and kill me and my family," they would timidly say.
And so it was only a handful of us who protested for gay rights. We were arrested and imprisoned. I was beaten, continuously raped, and my life repeatedly threatened. Ultimately, I was exiled from my native Egypt.
After my exile, I became disillusioned. Were LGBT people going to ever going to be free? Were we doomed to perpetual tyranny?
While teaching in the United States, I reflected on my activism and envisioned a new strategy to advance gay rights without attracting the wrath of the government. I dubbed it "activism from the closet": activists meet and support one another in the underground while not "coming out" to the general public where they are more susceptible to attack.
I thought that activism from the closet was the most a gay rights activist could achieve. My hope was that the closet would expand from within, gradually encompassing more and more people, in turn increasing spaces for LGBT people to express themselves.
Currently, the peoples of the Middle East have arisen. Across the Middle East, people have stood up to brutal tyrants. They stood up to their fear. In Bahrain, troops openly fired into crowds of protesters. In Libya, the military has repeatedly shot mourners at the funerals of other victims, and military jets are dropping aerial bombs into public demonstrations. But the people do not return home cowering in fear as they did when I was young. Instead, trembling and anxiety-ridden, they rush back to the center squares, crying out their peaceful chants in defiance of their tyrants.
The Revolutions Will Help Enable Gay Rights
From New York, I look at the Middle East with renewed excitement, planning my return and imagining new futures for gay rights. With the right to deliberate freely, people across the Middle East will be able to debate and persuade one another in John Stuart Mill’s fabled "free market of ideas." I believe the establishment of a democracy that enables the burgeoning of a free market of ideas will not only allow for the emergence of freedom from torture and freedom of expression -- freedoms sought openly by protesters -- but will pave the way for the rise of women’s rights and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights. No more activism from the closet. Now begins an activism outside the closet.
These dictatorships have wielded their power not only by their iron fist, but by excluding the Arab world from educational opportunities, from literacy -- from knowledge itself. With deliberation, knowledge will be sought and debates about gay rights will enter the public discourse.
At the start of the demonstrations in the Middle East, many skeptics worried that an Islamist-fundamentalist takeover would likely replace the fading dictatorships. These new Taliban-styled governments would be likely to wipe away any progress for women, gays, lesbians, and transgendered people.
The reality is the opposite. Islamist, fundamentalist rhetoric and ideas have tended to grow in the most repressive countries of the Middle East. As part of the dictators’ attempt to shore up their legitimacy, they co-opt the rhetoric of Islam for their own ends. And if they can’t do so successfully, they link violent extremism to Islamic fundamentalism so as to discredit Islam. This is reflected in how democratic Turkey’s record on gay rights stands miles ahead of Saudi Arabia, where executions against LGBT people occur regularly.
The peoples of the Middle East are not only coming out to topple their decades-old dictatorships. But they are toppling any who speak on their own behalf without the legitimacy of representative constitutional democracy. Through decades of dictatorial rule, we have all become democrats.
Forging a Link With Pro-Democracy Groups
Having spoken and agitated for gay rights in different parts of the Middle East, I can attest to the curious listening ears of the public. They will be skeptical, but they will not wield an iron fist as their dictators have over them.
They do not fear words or gentle persuasion. Eventually, the peoples of the Middle East will debate gay rights as they do any other political issue on the televised programs of Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, and in the region’s exponentially growing newspapers.
Gay rights activists and their allies in the Middle East and abroad should prepare to unite with secular, liberal and religious groups demanding that the right to bodily integrity, right to be free from torture, the right to privacy and the right to equality and non-discrimination must be entrenched in the newly drafted democratic constitutions. After years of autocratic rule in which people have been persecuted on the basis of both sexuality and religion, it is time for secular liberal and religious groups to come together to support basic human rights protections for all.
Even though the Muslim Brotherhood has openly rejected the inclusion of gay rights in a new Egyptian constitution, they support broad human rights protections, such as outlawing torture and the universal right to privacy, which are likely to benefit LGBT people in the long-term. This is particularly true if the judiciary is independent-another goal of the protesters whether they be secular or religious, liberal or conservative.
One can foresee a constitutional provision that requires that the state respect an individual’s bodily integrity to ensure that parents and psychiatrists cannot force electric shock rehabilitation therapy on their children. The right to be free from torture will forbid state officials from deploying torture as a means to suppress LGBT people.
The right to privacy anticipates an eventual case adjudicating anti-sodomy laws, and the inclusion of a constitutional provision on equality anticipates eventual cases on LGBT discrimination in employment, spousal support, adoption laws, and marriage. By constitutionally entrenching the universally accepted language of human rights -- without the controversial discourse of homosexuality -- the path to gay rights and LGBT dignity will have been paved.
Eventually, Middle Eastern countries will have laws that punish those who commit honor crimes and hate crimes against gays and lesbians. There will be laws against those who commit their children to rehabilitation electric shock therapy at hospitals across the Middle East. There will be laws against employment discrimination and in fact, discrimination of all kinds. Ultimately, there will be laws for same-sex marriage, from Morocco to Iran.
Gay rights are coming to the Middle East. And like the democracy protests, they will come sooner rather than later.
Hassan El Menyawi has taught human rights and Islamic law at the United Nations, the University for Peace and Davidson College. He has studied at McGill University, Osgoode Hall Law School, Harvard University, and is pursuing a PhD at New York University. He can be reached at hem251@nyu.edu.

Spring Theme for the Kindle Project Blog: Conflict Transformation
Spring is a time for transformation. Trees are blossoming, the earth is warming, and the days are getting longer – a perfect time for us to explore a subject we have been passionately studying for many years. Conflict Transformation, for us, is an essential element in the efforts of building peace in a lasting, sustainable and non-violent way.
Peace is not just the absence of violence. It is the willingness to acknowledge that conflict will always exist, but it is how we handle it that matters. The theories of Conflict Transformation urge us to approach conflict non-violently and to work through them holistically and with empathy. In the coming months we will be highlighting some truly amazing people and projects in hopes of shining some light on this immensely important field. We are excited to be able to share with you inspiring work from some of our grantees as well as others who are using various forms of conflict resolution, management and transformation with fierce commitment and wisdom.
To help introduce this theme, there is no better person to turn to for an explanation of this field than the father of Peace Studies himself, Johan Galtung - founder of TRANSCEND: A Peace Development Environment Center. For us, the TRANSCEND mission is in direct alignment with how we approach this subject, and in turn, it will be the lens through which we are viewing much of our content in the following months.
Below you’ll find an interview with Galtung from Al Jazeera’s One on One with Riz Khan. It is an excellent introduction to Galtung’s work and philosophies. It also gives a glimpse into his personal psyche and how he has stayed so active in his work throughout the years. Below, you will also find the mission statement for TRANSCEND.
Thanks to the epic Galtung…
TRANSCEND Mission Statement
TRANSCEND has as its mission: To bring about a more peaceful world by using action, education/training, dissemination and research to transform conflicts nonviolently, with empathy and creativity, for acceptable and sustainable outcomes.
By peace we mean the capacity to transform conflicts with empathy, without violence, and creatively — a never-ending process;
By transforming conflicts we mean enabling the parties to go ahead in a self-reliant, acceptable and sustainable manner;
By without violence we mean that this process should avoid any cultural violence that justifies direct or structural violence;
By with empathy we mean the ability also to understand the conflict the way the parties understand the conflict themselves;
By creatively we mean channeling conflict energy toward new realities, accommodating the parties and meeting basic human needs.
(via: http://www.transcend.org/#tpc)

Street Art Versus Museums: A Conversation The Kindle blog closes this season’s Art theme with a conversation between some great minds and artists. For us, dialogue is at the heart of how we explore what it is we do.
Most of us working at Kindle Project are artists in some form or another outside of our work. Over wine, caffeine, sleepless nights, and under porches, we have spent years building art theories and breaking them down. We’ve stenciled sidewalks and shown in galleries. We’ve been inspired by JR, Princess Hijab, and dreamed of walking the streets of Valparaiso, Chile. We’ve been impressed at MOMA and wowed by Launchprojects.
Recently, we’ve been asking questions about accessibility to art, the tension/cohesion between institutionalized art and street art. To help further this dialogue, we’ve solicited insight from four very diverse individuals in the art world to give us their candid reflections on a series of questions based on the broad debate of Street Art versus Institutionalized Art. We are pleased to present to you the perspectives of Cyndi Conn - Founder of Launchprojects, Pablo Acona – artist, Yozo Suzuki – artist, and Liza Mauer - founding member of Partners in Art. A special thanks to all of you.
Help keep the conversation moving and share your perspective with us.
Do you think that street art has a place in the context of modern art?
Yozo - I am certain that street art has its place in art. From cave painting to the digital displays of the Sony building on Ginza street in Tokyo artists have been showing art on the street and in public arenas since the earliest evidence of art itself. Of course such familiar names like Basquiat, Haring, Banksy and Fairey have had very successful careers indoors as well as out.
Liza - Street Art absolutely belongs in the world of contemporary art. It is an honest reflection of what is happening at a most basic grassroots level. If anything Street art holds an important entry level place for youth and a younger generation of artists. Have you seen the Banksy film, Exit through the Gift Shop? Every person I know under the age of 25 was transfixed by the film and related to its energy. I know young artists who are making street art today after learning about Banksy. Artists operate in many mediums and arenas. Street art is just one place to show and make art. Also, there isn't much of a difference between the mass market production of Bansky, Shephard Ferry and Andy Warhol. They are all responding to mass culture. LA MOCCA is currently showing the first NA large scale show of graffiti art.
Pablo - For many years I did not think street/graffiti art had a place in the modern art world because of the fact that is inherently a rebel culture that defied structure within that scene. It's hard to argue these days that it doesn't. Even back in the early NYC downtown art scene it had a place. The only difference is now it has become recognized as a tried and true profitable form of art so its blown up and everybody is doing it and can get a share of the market. Back in the day you had to prove yourself in the streets first, today you don't. I think graffiti/street art always could be considered an art form it just didn't always fit into the art world because it was made for the streets. That is where it was meant to be seen and that is where it made the biggest impression on the viewer. Now graffiti/street art is so watered down that it really doesn't matter and most people that create it are thinking about galleries, museums and books anyway.
Cyndi - Absolutely. Street art is and always has been a critical voice reflecting the reality of our times, not simply pandering to the demands and whims of an increasingly rarified art market. Street art also incorporates disparate facets of society that are not always addressed in traditional art making - music, film, politics, design, fashion, language - that creates an incredible synergy. It can be the impetus for and foreshadow movements to come in the larger art and cultural market.
What is the role of street art in molding public perceptions?
Yozo - On the most basic level street art exposes people of all social strata to personal and political expressions. The strong tradition of social commentary in street art coupled with the freedom of showing outside of commercial venues allows for an unvarnished view point to come forward in a mainstream way.
Liza - Street art generates a dialogue. It introduces a whole different constituent base to art. Art can be everywhere. It's our era's equivalent of the Arte Povera movement of the 1960's in Italy.
Pablo - In its purest form it is still catered to shocking and amazing the public and challenging peoples pre-conceptions of what art can or can't be. Sparking debate, emotions and perceptions. However the form I see it in most often nowadays is in the role of commercial art. It has molded people’s perceptions as to what can be profitable and commercial.
Cyndi - As i mentioned in the last question, street art can reflect the social pulse as it is transforming and becoming a larger movement or issue. Street art has both the benefit and detriment of anonymity, which gives the artist the capacity for absolute candor. I think the anonymity can be an important factor in reflecting the truth of our times. The flip side, the side that most who oppose street art would point to, is that anonymity also gives lesser minds with a spray can and time an opportunity to vandalize and debase public venues. As Nick Douglas of MOCA-latte describes the recent incident at LA MOCA, "The incident piqued my interest, not due to the issue of censorship, or the removal of Blu’s work, but the existence of a newly engaged public talking about art in Los Angeles. Deitch and his actions served as a lightening rod for debate regarding the role of the museum and art. It was exciting to see this level of discussion about art in Los Angeles – a pretty rare occurrence in this city." Street art begins conversations. That is always a critical function of the arts.
What is the role of institutionalized art in molding public perceptions?
Yozo - Art institutions tend to function as a type of sieve. Whether its in a museum whose goal is to present art historical content in the context of timelines and traditions or contemporary museums and galleries who distill contemporary art through the eyes of a curator, institutions of art tend to present a selective version of the art world.
Liza - Most people see art only in traditional art institutions-galleries, museums, public spaces. Institutions are critical to maintaining a cultural life in a city. Even a great street artist would be feel honoured to have an art show in a museum space. I dare them to argue the opposite.
Pablo - I don't really have an opinion on this.I almost feel institutionalized art is more authentic then most graffiti/street art these days. You go to school and you learn and develop a skill within a system. It can be limiting but that is what graffiti/street art was there for. It was an outlet from that side of art. Graffiti also was a system that artists used to work, learn, paid dues and developed in. It had rules and values that have been lost in newer generations. I think institutionalized art molds peoples perceptions as to what is viable as modern art in a classic sense.
Cyndi - I like the expression of institutionalized art. I am picturing little paintings in straight jackets in white padded cells. Art housed in institutions such as museums functions to demonstrate important works of art and fundamentally why art matters. Ideally, art opens minds, reminds of past mistakes and accomplishments, encourages us to continue pushing boundaries and taking daring risks for the sake of betting our community, country, world.
Does street art have a responsibility in education or informing the public? If so, what is that responsibility?
Yozo - I don't believe that artists have a responsibility to educate the public. One of the great things about art is that it can function as inspiration for thought; however, placing a burden on artists to serve any societal role negates its greatest strength.
Liza - No, it has no responsibility at all. It is art!! Art for Arts sake!
Pablo - Within education I think it can play an important role in teaching younger generations alternative ideas and techniques to approaching creativity and art. It also has a responsibility to teach the history of this form of art which will keep it in a context that separates it from other art. Right now the lines are blurry and there is not much difference between modern commercial art and graffiti/street art. The history is what really separates it and makes it special. Yet on the other hand street/graffiti art really has no responsibility to the public. In its purest form it is a creative backlash at the system and society that it was born and escaped from. Its anti-responsibility, anti-establishment and if its done correctly it can't be labeled. Maybe vandalism fits.
Cyndi - I think by its very nature the genre of street art should not have a responsibility in educating or informing the public. "Street Art" is a genre of radically diverse individuals with a wide-ranging intentions. I think that if street artists should be held accountable to anyone or anything that accountability should be dictated within their own system.
Does institutionalized art have a responsibility in educating or informing the public? If so, what is this responsibility?
Yozo - I wouldn't call it a responsibility. Having said that, I do appreciate seeing the greatest works of art through history even as determined by a consensus of so-called art experts. I guess if one is going to stand up and say "this is great art," then that person creates their own obligation to champion and preserve that art.
Liza - Yes, it does because institutions receive funding from the government and other arts organizations so are responsible for exposing, educating and supporting the arts. If we don't support the cultural life of our city through funding the arts, Toronto (and every other city for that matter) will be a wasteland. Art institutions primary responsibility is to expose and educate. Art shows, panel discussions, lectures, films all enrich our lives. We'd be no where without our cultural institutions.
Pablo - I think institutionalized art has a similar responsibility. To educate about history, techniques and movements. Unfortunately support for art is diminishing within the educational system. This leads to the lack of unique and creative thinking and inspiration that exists today.
Cyndi - It does because it is so defined. I feel the greater question is if institutions are currently doing their duty and fulfilling their responsibility in educating and / or informing the public, and how that might or could be changed to a changing public with changing needs in relation to arts and culture.
Bio's of our conversationalists:
Yozo Suzuki's work challenges notions of identity and power. Suzuki is represented by Linda Durham Contemporary Art in Santa Fe New Mexico.
Pablo Ancona is a DJ and multimedia artist from New York. He specializes in photography, collage, graphic design, audio /video editing and graffiti. He has lived and worked in Santa Fe, Chicago, Boston, New York and Sao Paulo. He graduated in 2008 with Bachelor of art in Documentary studies and a minor in art from The College of Santa Fe. For his senior project, Pablo produced a documentary on a Samba music band in rural Brazil that he filmed, photographed and recorded during a semester there. Since that time, Pablo has worked with local community artist, Chrissie Orr on the “El Otra Lado” project recording and editing the stories of immigrant and native communities in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Pablo has illustrated the covers for three children’s books, Murals ,Barrio and Olé, Flamenco, which were written and photographed by his father George Ancona. He is frequently involved in exhibitions and art projects such as a benefit for Haiti and a piece for American Friends Service Commitee’s Reflections on the war in Afghanistan project. As a DJ he specializes in Rare groove jazz,funk,soul,Disco,Latin and Hip Hop music. He plays a wide variety of events as well as producing mixed CD’s music and parties. Pablo is currently living and working in Sao Paulo,Brasil.
Cyndi Conn is currently the co-founding Director and Curator of LAUNCHPROJECTS. Conn has fourteen years of expertise in the field of contemporary art. An independent curator and consultant, Cyndi held the position of Visual Arts Director and Curator of the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe until founding Launchprojects in 2008. Based in Santa Fe, Cyndi curates, lectures, and advises clients throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe. She has lead art tours to Venice, Basel, Cali, Miami, Los Angeles, and New York.
Conn holds a Masters Degree in Curatorial Studies and Arts Administration from Skidmore College in conjunction with the Tang Museum, a BA in Latin American studies from Tulane University and studied at the Universidad Ibero Americana in Mexico City. She has lived in Paris, Mexico City, Austin, and New Orleans.
Liza Mauer is a founding member and past president of Partners in Art (PIA), a not-for profit organization that fundraises and educates its members in the arts. Over the past 7 years of its existence, PIA has raised over $750,000 and supported institutions such as the AGO, MOCCA, the ROM, Imageworks, OCAD, the Powerplant, the Gardner museum to just name a few. Several months ago, Liza resigned from being a Sr Development Officer at Sick Kids Hospital Foundation and is currently Vice President of the Powerplant Art gallery. Liza's busiest job however, is raising her four children.

Timebanking - With a reflection by Adam Rubel The global economy is continuing to shift and our financial futures are filled with uncertainty. Natural disasters, repeated recession, and a domino of national uprisings are contributing to this lack of economic stability. From where we sit, it is essential that we find new ways of working with one another, new ways of getting what we need and sharing what we have.
We’ve been long time barterers, fans of exchange and sharing our time with our communities. Timebanking as an idea is not a new one, but we’ve been particularly inspired lately by the international and local Timebanking movements.
Our friend and colleague, Adam Rubel has shared some explanations and reflections with us for today’s post.
[caption id="attachment_777" align="alignleft" width="300"] Adam Rubel[/caption]
Below you’ll find his articulate description of what Timebanking is and why it’s important. Adam became interested in Timebanking after seeing a PBS special entitled "Fixing the Future." He is inspired by the simple, practical ways to be able to take action in manifesting a complementary and alternative economic system.
Below you’ll also find a links to several recent and upcoming Time/Bank events that e-flux has been promoting in the arts communities.
Adam has spent the last decade working in the philanthropic and social profit fields. His efforts are inspired by a desire to bring forward the simplicity inherent in natural wisdom to better align complex systems to be in harmony with a natural order. Adam recently joined the newly formed Santa Fe TimeBank where he has spent the last few weeks helping facilitate the group's infrastructure development. He currently serves as the Executive Director of a small family foundation.
Timebanking
by Adam Rubel
With the growing recognition of the current economic system’s failings, the breakdown in community, and the desire to find a place to bring one’s unique gifts into the world, many are discovering the virtues of Timebanking. Timebanking can is a complimentary economic activity, which falls outside of monetary transaction and, in the US, qualifies as a non-taxable activity. Timebanking is the process of exchanging services, utilizing hours - often referred to as time dollars - as accounting units. There are numerous locally based Time Banks throughout the world, to which members belong and exchange services with each other, typically tracking the exchange through a web based application. In a world accustomed to utilizing sites like Wikipedia, Craigslist and Facebook, Timebanking leverages the power of a peer-to-peer network through a platform with benefits realized in real life. Every service is valued equally – one hour equals one time dollar, whether you are providing medical services or helping to clean someone’s yard. This can lead one into an inquiry about how one values time, for themselves as well as others. Timebanking serves as a vehicle for drawing upon the resources of a community to meet the needs of a community. Put another way, “strengthening communities through reciprocity” – the mission statement of Time Bank USA, the national organization closely affiliated with the movement’s origins. For some members, Time Banking holds the promise of transitioning society towards a community based gift economy, while others appreciate the opportunity to connect with their neighbors in a new way.
Timebanking was founded in 1980 by Edgar Cahn, an attorney who, while on bed rest after suffering a heart attack, contemplated ways to meet the growing needs of social programs at a time when funding sources were drying up. He felt that building community and countering the top down approach of social services, which views recipients only in terms of their needs versus assets available to solve many of the problems they faced, were essential. This approach can be seen in Timebanking’s core values of:
We can all be valued contributors
Honor real work that is beyond price
Helping works better as a two-way street
Networks make individuals stronger
Respect demands accountability
Cahn initially applied his work in providing pro-bono legal services to members of disadvantaged communities with the understanding that for every hour of service he provided, recipients had to provide an equal number of hours in service of their communities.
In the US, the Timebank movement is witnessing a resurgence following a drop-off in the mid nineties. Local networks are surfacing and growing, with many seeking to form unique alliances with partners such as: the co-op movement, racial justice initiatives, arts institutions, elder care, the local living economy movement, and others. Nationally, groups like HourTime have emerged offering open-sourced software and training to start-up timebanks (allowing for time dollars to be exchanged nationally) and national conferences bringing timebanks together are held annually.
Timebanking’s rise comes at a time when the current economic system which favors concentrating wealth and separating community is increasingly recognized as heading down a path with a precipitous end. Localizing economies and rebuilding inter-dependent communities is a primary building block to creating a living alternative to the cold, extractive nature of corporate rule. The growing recognition of our role within ecological and social systems and the value of our emotional and spiritual health draw us towards the promise of largely self-organizing economic systems, like Timebanking, as a framework that can help lead us back into a more harmonious alignment within ourselves and our surroundings. Time Banks may serve as the training wheels that help guide us back towards a viable reconnection of our communities and forward towards a way of living that emphasizes relationships over profit, balance over dominance and happiness over suffering.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Banking
http://www.hourworld.org/index.htm
http://www.timebanks.org/
e-flux - time/bank
Established in January 1999 in New York, e-flux is an international network which reaches more than 50,000 visual art professionals on a daily basis through its website, e-mail list and special projects. Its news digest – e-flux announcements – distributes information on some of the world's most important contemporary art exhibitions, publications and symposia. (Via http://www.e-flux.com/pages/about)
[caption id="attachment_781" align="alignleft" width="265"] Image by Lawrence Weiner. Sourced from eFlux at http://www.e-flux.com/timebank/about[/caption]
We've been subscribing to e-flux all winter to stay informed about some of what is happening in the world of contemporary art. It was from one of their posts about an event involving Lawrence Weiner's time/bank work that this post was inspired. Please visit the e-flux time/bank page to learn more and see below for recent listings involving art and timebanking:
Time/Bank at Portikus
Time bank will open a new branch in Frankfurt.
May 6–June 29, 2011
Portikus
Alte Brücke 2/Maininsel
60594 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
portikus.de
Time/Store at Stroom den Haague
Grand Opening:
May 12, 2011
Stroom den Haague
Hogewal 1-9
2514 HA The Hague
The Netherlands
T +31-70 3658985
info@stroom.nl
www.stroom.nl

Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcomes By Arjun Makhijani This statement by our friend and colleague, Arjun Makhijani, gives an incredibly in depth and insightful perspective of what's happening in Japan right now.
Arjun Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He has a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in nuclear fusion. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2007.
Please read his statement below and share it with your networks.
Many thanks to Arjiun and the IEER team.
Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcomes
by Arjun Makhijani[1]
Takoma Park, Maryland, March 14, 2011 (completed at 11 pm, EDT, March 13, 2011, with notes at 6:30 am March 14 and March 15, 2011): On March 11, 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi and the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plants (or Fukushima for short) experienced a severe earthquake, followed by a tsunami. This analysis relates to the Daiichi plant, which has experienced the more severe problems as of this writing so far as is known (9 p.m. March 13, 2011 Eastern Daylight Time, United States). Power from the grid was lost, and the reactors were successfully shut down as part of the emergency. But power to operate the site was still needed to remove the heat from the reactors. The Daiichi plant has six operating boiling water reactors. The oldest, Unit 1, which appears to have had a partial meltdown of the fuel, first went critical in 1970 (and was connected to the grid in 1971. Unit 3, which also appears to have had similar problems as Unit 1, whose fuel includes mixed plutonium oxide uranium oxide fuel (“MOX fuel”) first went critical in 1976. Both reactors are of the Mark 1 Boiling Water Design. They do not have the sturdy secondary containment buildings of concrete that is several feet thick typical of later reactor designs. (March 14, 6:30 a.m. note: Unit 3 has also experienced an explosion and Unit 2 appears to have lost cooling. The problems described here would likely apply to Unit 3; Unit 2 may be headed to similar problems.)
A special feature of the Mark 1 design is that the used fuel, also called spent fuel, is stored within the reactor building in a swimming pool-like concrete structure near the top of the reactor vessel. When the reactor is refueled, the spent fuel is taken from the reactor by a large crane, transferred to the pool, and kept underwater for a few years. This spent fuel must be kept underwater to prevent severe releases of radioactivity, among other reasons. A meltdown or even a fire could occur if there is a loss of coolant from the spent fuel pool. The water in the spent fuel pool and the roof of the reactor building are the main barriers to release of radioactivity from the spent fuel pool.
An explosion associated with Unit 1 occurred on March 12, at 3:36 p.m.[2] At first the authorities stated that this was in the turbine building next to the reactor building. However, it is the reactor building roof and part of the walls near the roof that were completely blown off leaving only a steel skeleton at the top of the building. This indicates an explosion inside the reactor building – probably a hydrogen explosion, since hydrogen is much lighter than air, it would accumulate near the top of the building. The explosion therefore seems to have occurred near the level where the spent fuel pool would be located in a Mark 1 reactor.
While Japanese authorities have stated that the reactor vessel is still intact, there has been no word regarding the status of the spent fuel pool structure, except indirectly (see below). Is it still intact? This is a critical question as to the range of potential consequences of the reactor accident.
Hydrogen is generated in a nuclear reactor if the fuel in the reactor loses its cover of cooling water. The tubes that contain the fuel pellets are made of a zirconium alloy. Zirconium reacts with steam to produce zirconium oxide and hydrogen gas. Moreover, the reaction is exothermic – that is, it releases a great deal of heat, and hence creates a positive feedback that aggravates the problem and raises the temperature. The same phenomenon can occur in a spent fuel pool in case of a loss of cooling water. In addition, there can be a fire. The mechanisms and consequences of such an accident are reasonably well known. A National Research Council of the National Academies study, published in 2006, is worth quoting at length:
The ability to remove decay heat from the spent fuel also would be reduced as the water level drops, especially when it drops below the tops of the fuel assemblies. This would cause temperatures in the fuel assemblies to rise, accelerating the oxidation of the zirconium alloy (zircaloy) cladding that encases the uranium oxide pellets. This oxidation reaction can occur in the presence of both air and steam and is strongly exothermic—that is, the reaction releases large quantities of heat, which can further raise cladding temperatures. The steam reaction also generates large quantities of hydrogen….
These oxidation reactions [with a loss of coolant] can become locally self-sustaining … at high temperatures (i.e., about a factor of 10 higher than the boiling point of water) if a supply of oxygen and/or steam is available to sustain the reactions…. The result could be a runaway oxidation reaction—referred to in this report as a zirconium cladding fire—that proceeds as a burn front (e.g., as seen in a forest fire or a fireworks sparkler) along the axis of the fuel rod toward the source of oxidant (i.e., air or steam)….
As fuel rod temperatures increase, the gas pressure inside the fuel rod increases and eventually can cause the cladding to balloon out and rupture. At higher temperatures (around 1800°C [approximately 3300°F]), zirconium cladding reacts with the uranium oxide fuel to form a complex molten phase containing zirconium-uranium oxide. Beginning with the cladding rupture, these events would result in the release of radioactive fission gases and some of the fuel’s radioactive material in the form of aerosols into the building that houses the spent fuel pool and possibly into the environment. If the heat from one burning assembly is not dissipated, the fire could spread to other spent fuel assemblies in the pool, producing a propagating zirconium cladding fire.
The high-temperature reaction of zirconium and steam has been described quantitatively since at least the early 1960s….[3]
The extent of the release would depend on the severity of loss of coolant, how much spent fuel there is in the pool, and how recently some of it has been discharged. The mechanisms of the accident would be very different than Chernobyl, [4] where there was also a fire, and the mix of radionuclides would be very different. While the quantity of short-lived radionuclides, notably iodine-131, would be much smaller, the consequences for the long term could be more dire due to long-lived radionuclides such as cesium-137, strontium-90, iodine-129, and plutonium-239. These radionuclides are generally present in much larger quantities in spent fuel pools than in the reactor itself. In light of that, it is remarkable how little has been said by the Japanese authorities about this problem. From the tiny amount of information available, it appears that there is a problem of cooling of the spent fuel. According to a TEPCO press release, issued on March 13, at 9 pm, Japan time:
We are currently coordinating with the relevant authorities and departments as to how to secure the cooling water to cool down the water in the spent nuclear fuel pool. [5]
This indicates that there is a spent fuel cooling problem. But there is no information on how serious it is and whether the pool has been damaged and is leaking. It is reasonable to surmise that pumping seawater into the reactor building from the outside would be directed more at the spent fuel pool than at the reactor. According to TEPCO, the injection of seawater into the reactor vessel of Unit 1 has been successfully done. This also appears to be the case for Unit 3, as of this writing.[6] Boric acid is being added to the seawater to prevent an accidental criticality, which could happen in the reactor or in the spent fuel pool. Venting of radioactive steam from the reactors will likely have to continue.
It is unclear at this stage whether there has been venting of radionuclides from the spent fuel pool in Unit 1. Venting from the reactor has been acknowledged by the authorities. Rather high levels of radiation, over 1,200 microsieverts per hour[7] – which is more than 10,000 times natural background radiation at sea-level – have been reported outside the plant. At this level the annual allowable dose of the radiation to the public would be exceeded in less than an hour. Such levels indicate a partial meltdown in Unit 1 and possibly in Unit 3. However, while it seems to be widely assumed that the radioactivity has been emanating only from the reactor vessel (s), it is unclear whether some of it is also being released from the Unit 1 spent fuel pool, which may have been damaged by the explosion.
The consequences of severe spent fuel pool accidents at closed U.S. reactors were studied by the Brookhaven National Laboratory in a 1997 report prepared for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. According to the results, the damages resulting from such accidents for U.S. Boiling Water Reactors could range from $700 million to $546 billion, which would be between roughly $900 million and $700 billion in today’s dollars. The lower figures would apply if there were just one old spent fuel set present in the pool to a full pool in which the spent fuel has been re-racked to maximize storage. Other variables would be whether there was any freshly discharged spent fuel in the pool, which would greatly increase the radioactivity releases. The estimated latent cancer deaths over the years and decades following the accident was estimated at between 1,300 and 31,900 within 50 miles (about 80 kilometers) of the plant and between 1,900 and 138,000 within a radius of 500 miles (about 800 kilometers) from the plant.[8]
The spent fuel pools at the Daiichi reactors contain approximately these amounts: Unit 1, 50 metric tons; Unit 2, 81 metric tons; and Unit 3, 88 metric tons.[9] No mixed oxide (MOX) spent fuel is in the Unit 3 spent fuel pool. The typical U.S. reactor discharges 20 metric tons of spent fuel per year and stores that on site, in almost all cases, in wet or dry storage. The range of consequences in Japan would be somewhat different from those outlined in the Brookhaven report, since the consequences depend on population density within 50 and 500 kilometers of the plant, the re-racking policy, and several other variables. It should also be noted that Daiichi Unit 1 is about half the power rating of most U.S. reactors, so that the amount of radioactivity in the pool would be about half the typical amount, all other things being equal. But the Brookhaven study can be taken as a general indicator that the scale of the damage could be vast in the most severe case.
One hopes that the spent fuel pool in Unit 1 can be kept full of water and the various reactors can be kept cool enough to prevent much more serious consequences than have already occurred (there has been serious worker exposure and some public radiation exposure already, according to news reports[10]). But the accident makes clear that there is ample information and analysis that very grave consequences are possible from lighter water reactors – which are the designs used in Japan, the United States, and most of the rest of the world. Spent fuel pools have special vulnerabilities that are different in different specific designs, but all possess some risk of severe consequences in worst-case accidents or worst-case terrorist attacks (which were studied by the National Research Council in its 2006 report).
The United States should move as much spent fuel out of the pools as possible into hardened and secure dry storage. The tragedy in Japan is also a reminder that making plutonium and fission products just to boil water (which is what a nuclear reactor does) is not a prudent approach to electricity generation. While existing reactors will be needed to maintain the stability of electricity supply for some time (as is also evident from the earthquake-tsunami catastrophe in Japan), new reactor projects should be halted and existing reactors should be phased out along with coal and oil. It is possible to do so economically in the next few decades, while maintaining the reliability of the electricity system and greatly improving its security, as I have shown in my book Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy published in 2007, and in subsequent work that can be found on the IEER website, www.ieer.org. Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free can be downloaded free at http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/CarbonFreeNuclearFree.pdf.
Revisions made at 11:30 am EDT, March 15, 2011
[1] Arjun Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He has a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in nuclear fusion. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2007.
[2] Tokyo Electric Power Company, Press Release, “Plant Status of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (as of 9pm [Japan time] March 13th),” on the web at http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031310-e.html. These press releases are referred to below as TEPCO 2011, with the date and time of the press release and the URL provided.
[3] National Research Council, Safety and Security of Commercial Spent Fuel Storage: Public Report. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2006, on the web at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11263, pp.38-39. This report addressed the issue of terrorist attacks on spent fuel pools and the precautions that might be taken in light of the potential severity of the problem. See below.
[4] The Chernobyl reactor was a very different design – water-cooled and graphite moderated. The reactor itself exploded catastrophically due to a runaway accident in that case. That is not the case at present, where the reactor was shut down successfully almost immediately after the earthquake. At Chernobyl, the graphite caught fire and the fire lasted for ten days. In the case of the most severe spent fuel pool accident, it would be the zirconium that would catch fire, as described by the National Academies study quoted above.
[5] TEPCO Press Release, March 13, 9 pm. on the web at http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031312-e.html
[6] TEPCO Press Release, March 13, 9 pm. on the web at http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031312-e.html
[7] Hiroko Tabuchi and Matthew L. Wald, “Japanese Scramble to Avert Meltdowns as Nuclear Crisis Deepens After Quake,” New York Times, March 12, 2011, at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/13nuclear.html viewed at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, March 13, 2011
[8] R.J. Travis, R.E. Davis, E.J. Grove, M.A. Azarm, A Safety and Regulatory Assessment of Generic BWR and PWR Permanently Shutdown Nuclear Power Plants, BNL-NUREG-52498 and NUREG/CR-6451, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1997, link at http://www.osti.gov/bridge/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=510336. Tables 4.1, 4.2.
[9] Aileen Mioko Smith, speaking at the Friends of the Earth press briefing, “Explosion at Japanese Nuclear Facility,” March 14, 2011, links on the web at http://www.foe.org/experts-comment-us-implications-japanese-reactor-crisis, to audio at http://www.foe.org/experts-comment-us-implications-japanese-reactor-crisis.
[10] Hiroko Tabuchi and Matthew L. Wald, “Partial Meltdowns Presumed at Crippled Reactors,” New York Times, March 13, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14nuclear.html (later called “Second Explosion at Reactor as Technicians Try to Contain Damage”), first viewed at 8:13 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, March 13, 2011.

Center for PostNatural History
It’s possible that you’ve never heard of the term PostNatural. We hadn’t until we met Rich Pell. What we discovered upon learning about Rich’s work is that he is contributing something entirely unique and absolutely essential to the library of human knowledge.
The Center for PostNatural History (CPNH) is a public outreach center dedicated to the intersection of culture, nature and biotechnology. The PostNatural refers to the life forms that have been intentionally altered by humans through domestication, selective breeding and genetic engineering. Towards this end, the CPNH produces thematic multimedia exhibitions, printed works and maintains a collection of living, preserved and documented specimens of PostNatural origin. To read more please visit their site.
Rich Pell, is part scientist, part activist, part artist. He is the most subtle bad ass we’ve ever spoken to. He’s an activist at heart but is working in such brilliant and calculated ways, always just under the radar, never breaking any rules, knowing the laws of his field inside and out…all the while creating something brand new, something we’ve never seen before.
Below Pell takes us through a of a virtual journey of the Center for PostNatural History. Once he opens up the space in June we’ll be posting an update with some photos from the new Center.
Here is a video introduction into the world of PostNatural History:
CPNH - Outreach from Rich Pell on Vimeo.
Center for PostNatural History from Rich Pell on Vimeo.
A 'Tour' of The Center for PostNatural History - by Richard Pell
The Center for PostNatural History (CPNH) is a public outreach center dedicated to the intersection of culture, nature and biotechnology. The PostNatural refers to the life forms that have been intentionally altered by humans through domestication, selective breeding and genetic engineering. Towards this end, the CPNH produces thematic multimedia exhibitions, printed works and maintains a collection of living, preserved and documented specimens of PostNatural origin.
The CPNH is proud to announce the grand opening of its permanent home in June 2011. The space, located at 4913 Penn Ave. in Pittsburgh, PA, will house a variety of exhibits that explore the menagerie of living organisms that have been intentionally altered by humans since the dawn of agriculture up to present day. Visitors to the CPNH will enter the South Hall on Penn Ave and be greeted by an exhibition of feral postnatural plants of the region. These include Appalachian medicinal plants originally cultivated by local Indian tribes and early European settlers, which more recently have been branded as commercial pharmaceutical products. Also on exhibit will be several invasive plant species, which have been imported (both intentionally and unintentionally) from other parts of the world and are now opportunistically expanding their range here in Western Pennsylvania.
[caption id="attachment_739" align="alignleft" width="326"] DARPA Spider Goat Farm in former atomic weapons bunker field[/caption]
A narrow doorway from the South Hall leads the visitor into the main exhibit area. Low lighting and the sounds of traffic from the street outside give way to the gurgle aquaria and a collage of animal murmurings. A small room is filled with miniature dioramas depicting strange and familiar landscapes that play significant roles in the origins of postnatural life: a fish farm in Florida raises GloFish™, the only genetically engineered pet available in the U.S. Another presents a miniature weapons bunker field, home to goats who produce spider silk in their milk for the U.S. Military.
Through another narrow passage the visitor enters the specimen room, where dry and fluid preserved specimens of a wide variety of genetically engineered life forms are stored. Disease resistant chestnut trees,
[caption id="attachment_741" align="alignleft" width="300"] Transgenic American Chestnut Tree[/caption]
industrial corn, genetically altered fruit flies, anti-malarial mosquitoes, E.coli with human DNA and more. These specimens have been selected from the CPNH’s permanent collection and are displayed on a temporary basis. Each is viewable in its own individually lit round glass case within this dark, light-controlled space. A glass door labeled the “Specimen Vault” designates the storage location of the permanent collection not currently on display. Through the glass of the door visitors may read labeled drawers and boxes which chronicle the myriad mice, flies, fish, plants, et cetera that constitute the growing collection of the Center for PostNatural History.
The Center for PostNatural History (CPNH) is proud to announce the grand opening of its permanent home in June 2011. The space, located at 4913 Penn Ave. in Pittsburgh, PA, will house an ongoing cycle of exhibits that explore the menagerie of living organisms that have been intentionally altered by humans, since the dawn of agriculture up to present day. Visitors to the CPNH will encounter living, preserved and documented examples of postnatural organisms and their habitats.
Books and posters documenting significant exhibits and collector's card sets will be available in CPNH gift shop. Visit www.postnatural.org for follow @postnatural on Twitter for more information.

Climate activist - Tim DeChristopher on Trial Kindle Project is a big supporter of Bidder 70, a.k.a Tim DeChristopher. Tim's brazen action has been precedent setting. Our thoughts are with Tim as we all await news from his trail this week. Our friends, The Yes Men, sent out some well articulated background about Tim in their newsletter this week:
In December 2008, Tim decided to disrupt an auction of oil and gas leases near the beautiful Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah. The auction was Bush's parting gift to his good friends in industry, and Tim intended to disrupt the event and get himself arrested. But as he walked in the door, an attendant asked Tim if he was there to bid. "Why yes, yes I am," he answered, and was given a paddle. Tim then proceeded to win several lots in a row - until the auctioneer realized something was wrong, suspended the proceedings, and had Tim arrested.
[caption id="attachment_718" align="alignleft" width="636"] Tim DeChristopher - Image: Francisco Kjolseth, The Salt Lake Tribune[/caption]
Read the details of his trial in this Utah News article and check back with us early next week to find out how the trial went.
To support the group that is coordinating Tim's legal defense please click here.
We're with you Tim!

Orgy of the Rich - Courtesy of LaunchProjects Last week one of the blogs we follow, LAUNCHPROJECTS, featured an article about five protesters who snuck into the Sotheby's auction house in London to bring attention to the potential budget cuts for arts programs in the UK. LAUNCHPROJECTS is a private exhibition venue dedicated to developing contemporary artists careers including artist representation, secondary market sales, and presenting provocative, engaging, and relevant exhibitions and installations. We are major admirers of ballsy protest and give kudos to LAUNCHPROJECTS for spreading the word on this action. Read their article below.
LAUNCHPROJECTS - Tuesday's evening auctions at Sotheby's London experienced an unprecedented moment - five protesters snuck into the room and disrupted the auction process. The protestors threw fake £50 notes in the air and then unfurled a large banner stating "orgy of the rich". The demonstrators belonged to Arts Against Cuts, a group of artists and students protesting a recent plan by the U.K. government to explore budget cuts for arts programs in the wake of the recession.
Their protest began with moaning as Andy Warhol's Nine Multicolored Marilyns (Reversal Series) was presented by Sotheby's star auctioneer Tobias Meyer. The moaning escalated to screaming, shouting, sirens, and alarms while dozens of protesters rallied outside the auction house, shouting and waving banners. One particularly poignant sign read 1 Warhol = 1,222 tuitions.
In the words of New York Times contributor Soren Melikian, "If this was a happening, as I overheard another dealer saying in jest, it was too close to the bone to feel like a joke. It chimed well with the Whatever the reality, this may have long-term repercussions in the market. People deeply involved in art, rich and not so rich, tend to live in their own cocoon. They are not used to having the worries of the rest of the world thrown in their faces."
Rob Parsons and Godfrey Baker of the London Evening Standard quoted a protester explain that "it is obscene that the amount of money being spent at this auction could be the difference between having some form of local services which exists in the community and not." Belgian collector Mark Vanmoerkerke said the auction house took the interruption in its stride. He said: "It's fun to see people stand up for what they believe in. An orgy of the rich? They're not exactly wrong."
My guess is that Vanmoerkerke's flash of insight did not influence his enthusiasm or spending, nor did the protest have any effect on the rest of the evenings sales. The notably small sale raised £44m. When combined with the results of the single-owner sale Looking Closely held the previous week, Sotheby’s total for its post-war art auctions fetched £88m - the second highest February in the auction's history.
To view the original post click here.

The Awesome Foundation
At Kindle Project we love to stay connected and learn about interesting projects happening within the foundation and giving world, this helps feed our inspiration and continuously find ways to bring creativity to the funding we do. In that spirit we are taking a closer look at The Awesome Foundation, a project that is currently gaining a lot of momentum.
Created in the long hot summer days of 2009 in Boston, the Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is given upfront in cash, check, or gold doubloons by groups of ten or so self-organizing “micro-trustees,” who form autonomous chapters around geographic areas or topics of interest. (To read more from their About section please click here.)
In browsing the foundation’s blog, we liked the array of ideas, creative projects, and truly bizarre and wonderful concepts that were being funded. When times are tough, money can be tight, and many creators with brilliant ideas need some encouragement and they also need cash. These kinds of micro-financing projects have the potential to make a real difference, not only in the life of the individual but also in the building of community. They also change the way we think about access to money and the relationship between funders and recipients. The video below of an attendee of the San Francisco’s chapter one year anniversary party describes a little of what we’re talking about:
The Toronto chapter is announcing it’s first recipient this evening! Kindle staff member, Arianne will be there and will be sure to keep you posted about which project won this first round. If you’re interested in seeing what people are pitching to the Toronto chapter you can read the shortlist here. They had over 250 applicants!
Below you’ll find some our favorite projects that were funded by The Awesome Foundation in various parts of the world.
Big Dipper ProjectThis project was funded by The Awesome Foundation's London chapter last May. Oscar Lhermitte has been recreating the missing stars from the London skyline...watch below to see what he did with his $1000.
The Hip Hop Word Count
Tahir Hemphill was awarded an Awesome Foundation grant from the New York chapter in July 2010. The Hip-Hop Word Count (HHWC) is a searchable ethnographic database built from the lyrics of over 40,000 Hip-Hop songs from 1979 to present day. Watch the video on his Kickstarter site to learn more or visit his personal site. Below is an example of some of what HHWC does. Pretty rad...
Read the State of Awesome Report from 2010 here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46884607/State-of-Awesome-2010
What would you do with $1000?
What are your thoughts about progressive philanthropy and micro-financing?
We’d love to hear what you think…

Chevron Found Guilty of Massive Contamination in Equador This week an unprecedented and incredibly important blow was struck for environmental protection, human rights and corporate accountability. In a historic decision, after a 17 year legal battle, an Ecuadorian court has found Chevron guilty of massive environmental contamination and ordered the company to pay $9 billion to clean up their mess, provide potable water, and fund critical health care.
The decision from the Lago Agrio judge vindicates what indigenous peoples and local farmers have been saying, and suffering, for decades – that Chevron drilled, dumped, and never looked back. Now, a court of Chevron's choosing, using mostly the company's own evidence, has found that the company is liable in one of the largest judgments against a US company for crimes abroad.
Amazon Watch and its supporters stand in celebration and solidarity with the 30,000 plaintiffs who have achieved this tremendous milestone in their struggle for justice.
At this moment in history we are asking each of you to redouble your effort and join with the plaintiffs who will continue to fight until Chevron cleans up its toxic mess.
Visit ChevonToxico.com and send a message to Chevron's CEO!
Change your Facebook profile picture to show your solidarity, and share with your friends.
Also, please donate to the Clean Up Ecuador Campaign
so that we may continue and expand our efforts to make Chevron clean up the Amazon.
The long struggle for justice will not end until the affected communities get a clean up, potable water, and critical funds for health care. But this week we are one pivotal step closer to justice.
Thank you for your support!
Han Shan
Coordinator, Clean Up Ecuador Campaign
The content of this post was taken from the Amazon Watch newsletter. For more information on Amazon Watch please visit their site.

Santa Fe Art Institute This year the Santa Fe Art Institute is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary. With the plethora of services, lectures, and education opportunities for artists and the community of Santa Fe, SFAI is a truly a rousing contemporary organization that is deeply rooted in values of community building. Supporting artists locally and internationally, tackling some of the most pressing issues and debates of our time, SFAI provides a platform for expression and learning. While SFAI serves as a hub for creative pushers, it at once creates a safe space to open dialog between artists, learners, and educators on controversial issues ranging from climate change to the use of religious iconography.
[caption id="attachment_610" align="alignleft" width="200"] SFAI Studios[/caption]
SFAI has a lot going on this year and we encourage you to read below to discover what they’re currently up to. We took a particular interest in their upcoming C*ENSORSHIP series (described below), a show which addresses the complexity of censorship. In this feature you’ll find about their upcoming events, a list of the artists they are currently partnered with, and a written piece about their annual programming theme: HALF-LIFE: Patterns of Change—Cycles of Creation, Decay, and Renewal in Art and Life.
If you are in Santa Fe be sure to stop by their space and learn more. If not, please visit their site to learn more.
www.sfai.org • www.sfaiblog.org
Events Coming up at SFAI
C*NSORSHIP
What: Screening David Wojnaroxicz's film "A Fire in My Belly"
Where: SFAI Gallery 1 Projection Room
When: January 18 - February 25, 2011, looping continuously, 9am - 5pm M-F
How Much: FREE
What: C*NSORSHIP: a p*nel discuss**n
Where: Tipton Hall
When: Friday, February 25, 2011 @6pm
How Much: $10 general admission - $5 students/seniors/members
In reaction to the National Portrait Gallery’s decision to remove David Wojnarowicz’s film, “A Fire in My Belly”, from the exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, the Santa Fe Art Institute will screen the film beginning January 18th and running through February 25th. These screenings will act in support of Wojnarowicz’s important and complex work and in protest to the NPG’s conviction that the censorship of the work serves as an appropriate response to the controversy sparked by right-wing religious and political figures. The museum caved into bullying.
[caption id="attachment_615" align="alignleft" width="465"] Still from Wojnarowicz's Film[/caption]
The film, which could be optionally viewed on a small touch screen, had been cut from its original 13-minute length to a 4-minute version while on display. Undoubtedly, the film was chosen for its powerful surrealist rendering of the gay experience during the AIDS epidemic. Removing the film reflects the notion of censorship and not the intended focus or major themes of the exhibition. The action further marginalizes the artist and disregards the overall nature of the NPG’s large and diverse audience.
In 1987, the year Wojnarowicz finished the film, the climate around AIDS was heated, and controversial. It was the year gay activists formed ACT UP, And the Band Played On was published, and Cleve Jones stitched the first panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt. It was also the year that many were shocked to learn Princess Diana had shaken hands with an AIDS patient with an ungloved hand, the Williamson City Pool was shut down because Mike Sisco, a gay man living with AIDS, entered the pool, and it was the first time President Reagan had publicly uttered the word “AIDS.” By then, over 41,000 Americans had already died from the disease.
At the conclusion of the screening, on Friday evening, February 25th, the SFAI will host a panel discussion on censorship with distinguished panelists: Robert Atkins, Roberto Bedoya, Harmony Hammond, Lucy Lippard
Moderated by Zane Fischer
For more information about this or any SFAI event, please contact Michelle Laflamme-Childs at mchilds@sfai.org or call (505) 424-5050.
•••
HALF-LIFE: Patterns of Change
Cycles of Creation, Decay, and Renewal in Art and Life
The Two-Year Theme Description for SFAI
2011-2012
Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) is dedicated to bringing artistic excellence and talent to our community, making art an intrinsic part of civic projects and an impetus for creative neighborhood development. We believe that art plays an indispensable role in the life of any place and that, through art, the community can find its voice and its vision. In 2011, our programming focus is HALF-LIFE: Patterns of Change—Cycles of Creation, Decay, and Renewal in Art and Life.
Half-life is the period of time it takes for a decaying substance to decrease by half. In a broader sense, half-life can be understood as an integral part of the patterns of change found in all systems—from the seasons and cycles of the moon to human and urban lifecycles. Nature itself is in a state of constant flux. There are also patterns of change and cycles in the built environment—such as the urban landscape, communication systems, and transportation—that impact our lives in powerful ways. Through HALF-LIFE programming and exhibitions, SFAI seeks to help participating artists and audiences better understand lifecycles, dependency, recycling, and innate behavior.
When an object or system stops performing its assigned function in contemporary society we tend to replace it rather than repair it. However, artists can redefine useless as useful by creating a new life for inanimate objects, and, evolved beyond original purpose, that renewed life alters the role of these objects entirely. Artists can work similar magic with degraded landscapes, blighted neighborhoods, and other systems—transforming them, infusing them with new purposes, and expanding the potential for positive change. Optimally, this change is accomplished with the participation and engagement of the surrounding communities, so that not only are objects and systems are transformed, but also the communities themselves.
Through HALF-LIFE programming and the work of many outstanding visiting artists and scholars, we will explore questions that underlie the concept of half-life: How do systems age, decline, and regenerate? How can we use the artistic and creative process to make those regenerative and restorative actions sustainable, inclusive, and effective? The artists will wrestle with complex issues such as the history of culture and community, the boundaries of cycles, the nature of place-making, how relationships with the natural environment build or destroy community, the ways in which art (past and contemporary) embodies cultural memory, and meditations on self-identity and place.
•••
SFAI's Artist Partners for 2011
• Aviva Rahmani •
www.ghostnets.com
• Amy Balkin •
www.tomorrowmorning.net
[caption id="attachment_633" align="aligncenter" width="432"] A piece by Amy Balkin[/caption]
• Kim Stringfellow •
www.kimstringfellow.com
• Andy Goldsworthy •
www.rwc.uc.edu/artcomm
• T Allan Comp •
www.tacomp.info
• Free Soil •
(Website not available at this time, please check back.)
• Eve Andree Laramee •
www.home.earthlink.net/~wander
• Erika Blumenfeld •
www.erikablumenfeld.com
• Monika Bravo •
www.monikabravo.com
• Post Commodity •
www.postcommodity.com
[caption id="attachment_654" align="aligncenter" width="346"] Do You Remember When? 2009 by Post Commodity[/caption]
• Patricia Watts •
(Website not available at this time, please check back.)
• Brooke Singer •
www.bsing.net
• Steve Lambert •
www.visitsteve.com
[caption id="attachment_653" align="aligncenter" width="382"] You Are Still Alive, 2010 by Steve Lambert[/caption]
• Allora and Calzadilla •
www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/allora-and-calzadilla/
• Mel Chin •
(Website not available at this time, please check back.)
• Agnes Denes •
www.greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-63.html
• Steve Peters •
(Website not available at this time, please check back.)

Jace Clayton. Artist. Musician. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="256"] Jace Clayton[/caption]
This week, Kindle is pleased to feature Makers Muse awardee, Jace Clayton.
Clayton is an interdisciplinary artist whose interests include music, writing, and public space. Clayton explores memory in the digital era, and how technology and culture intersect in low-income communities, with an emphasis on Latin America, Africa, and the Arab world.
As DJ/Rupture, Clayton has performed and collaborated with musicians in over 30 countries. He has an album coming out this spring, so be sure to keep up with him via his blog.
Here, Jace shares with us his writing about Radio GooGoo, a sound installation project that was never documented.
Thanks Jace!
Radio GooGoo
by Jace Clayton
I just finished an album that's a soundtrack to a remake of The Shining, set in a luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The film doesn't exist, but our music for it does. In a few months you'll be able to hear that, so I don't need to talk about it. I'll use this time to tell you about a sound piece you can't listen to, because I forgot to record it...
In 2010 the Studio Museum in Harlem invited me to create an audio installation for the museum's front rooms, as part of their StudioSound series. My main concern was for the museum staff – the guy who does coatcheck, the people behind the front desk. They have to stand around there all day, so the last thing I wanted to do was make a 10-minute song which they'd be forced to listen to, on repeat, for months. Museum guards are the main audience for museum art. How could I create a constantly changing audio piece that wouldn't wear out its welcome? I started thinking about composing for a process rather than a product. I also wanted the piece to be non-narrative, something you could simply experience without having a specific start or end. I've never liked narrative audio- or video-installations that loop – perhaps because I always walk in on them at the worst possible time.
The core ideas of 'Radio GooGoo' came all at once: take radio, transform the sounds, broadcast the altered signals – realtime – in the Studio Museum. Instead of writing music, I built an assemblage of FX and strange digital audio machines, then “played” them, optimizing each one around the particular station it was built for, composing several long pieces – not of music, but of parameters for musical transformations. Radio GooGoo is, among other things, a series of computer-based algorithms which listen to local NYC radio and radically transform the sound, re-broadcasting the results in the front spaces of the Studio Museum.
When it was up & running, Radio GooGoo cycled between three FM stations/algorithms, one each day:
A classical station transforms into floating ambience. The results are a gauzy, drifting cloud, which is periodically tuned to the dominant musical scales of North Africa (Arabic, Berber). Classical music receives an enormous amounts of funding. This piece engages ideas of “classical” both as a Western system of listening and a virtuosic performance, but mostly it sounds like Beethoven on zero-gravity painkillers.
My piece for Hot97 (“blazing hiphop and r&b”) makes the station's broadcasts sound like a lovesick synthesizer inside a dripping cave. Mostly it's a lot of atonal, irregularly spaced bleeps with a timbral palette that alludes to classic mid-20th century musique concrete, but at times it resolves into legibility and you're able to recognize the stacatto main riff of a popular song (albeit replayed on a vocoder). Sometimes the signal with go completely unprocessed for seconds, so listeners can hear the transformations.
I took a different approach for talk radio. Here, words get chopped up and scrambled, realtime. Certain phrases repeat, linger, shuffle backwards and forward wrapped in echo. You can understand the topic of discussion, its tone and themes and vocal tics, but the conversation's in tatters.
Radio GooGoo was a result of my efforts to create a welcome space, sharing “music like dirt”. The Jamaican phrase refers to music's ubiquity and abundance. Although this was not its intention, the piece presents an alternate universe of copyright and authorship – I created Radio GooGoo, and Radio GooGoo creates new music – by digesting local FM radio and giving back something totally
new. It is the sound you hear, as well as the software system I cobbled together to make it. Radio GooGoo generated months of original audio during it's Studio Museum run, but, with all the abundance I never bothered to record it. I'm a terrible archivalist. Didn't even take a photo of the computer running it, which I wanted to capture because it was so mundane.

Naomi Klein Writes about the search for BP Oil We recently came across this post on The Nation. In this in depth article Naomi Klein writes about her experience on board WeatherBird II, a research vessel owned by the University of South Florida that has been tracking BP oil in the Gulf of Mexico. She reminds us to keep paying attention to this extremely important issue. She writes,
On board the WeatherBird II, I was constantly struck by the strange simultaneity of discovery and destruction, watching young scientists experiment on fouled sediment drawn up from places science had barely mapped. It's always distressing to witness a beautiful place destroyed by pollution. But there is something particularly harrowing about the realization that we are contaminating places we have never even seen in their natural state. As drilling pushes farther and farther into deep water, risking more disasters in the name of jobs and growth, marine scientists trained to discover the thrillingly unknown will once again be reduced to coroners of the deep, boldly discovering that which we have just destroyed.
Her full article can be read here.
Below is Klein's TED Talk about this issues.

NMELC Wins Supreme Court Victory! We have been keeping you informed about the work of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center over the past few months. We featured them here and gave another update recently.
Now, we are celebrating with them in honor of yesterday's victory at the Supreme Court.
Below is the press release from yesterday, which can also be viewed on their site.
NMELC wins Supreme Court Victory!
SANTA FE, N.M.— The New Mexico Supreme Court sided with environmental groups today when it granted a writ of mandamus to the New Mexico State Records Administrator, compelling her to print the adopted and final greenhouse gas cap and dairy discharge rules. The printing of the rules was halted earlier in the month by Governor Martinez’ Executive Order which suggested the rules were “pending” and therefore subject to a ninety day hold for review.
“This is a tremendous and deserved victory for the administration of justice in New Mexico,” stated Bruce Frederick, staff attorney of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC), the nonprofit law firm that brought two suits against the Governor for its clients, New Energy Economy and Amigos Bravos. “The ruling ensures that our regulations will continue to be developed in a public and open process, and be protected from revision through secret, backroom deals.”
Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels stated, when announcing the court’s decision, the Court did not think it necessary to issue a writ against the Governor or the Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department. “The issue is whether the suspension of the printing of the rules was proper. We will issue a writ against the State Records Administrator. She has a non-discretionary administrative duty to follow the law.”
“The ruling sends a strong message to Governor Martinez and her cabinet secretaries,” said Douglas Meiklejohn, NMELC Executive Director, “they must follow the law, just like the citizens they govern.”
Background
Immediately after the Governor’s swearing in on January 1st, 2011, Governor Martinez enacted an Executive Order that imposes a ninety day hold on all proposed or pending rules. The Order calls for a “Small Business-Friendly Task Force” chaired by the Secretary of Economic Development to identify “each rule or regulation, the rescinding or revision of which could significantly enhance the business environment in New Mexico.”
On January 3rd, the NMELC received an anonymous tip that the Governor’s office was using the Executive Order to stop the printing and codification of 32 adopted and final regulations.
On January 11th, the NMELC filed suit for its client, New Energy Economy, in New Mexico Supreme Court against the State Governor, the Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department, and the New Mexico State Records Administrator. They petitioned the Court for a writ of mandamus to compel the Governor and Environment Department Secretary, to comply with existing law, and to compel the State Records Center to codify and publish the adopted and final greenhouse gas regulation in the State Register.
On January 13th, the NMELC filed a similar suit for its client, Amigos Bravos, over the halt of printing adopted and final dairy discharge regulations.

NPR Features Wafaa Bilal NPR recently made mention of Kindle Project's Makers Muse recipient, Wafaa Bilal. Bilal's most recent work is being exhibited at the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar.
To listen to the NPR piece and read the article please visit their site here.
To see more of Bilal's work you can visit his site here.

Lori del Mar Lori Del Mar is one of our Makers Muse Award recipients. She is a talented and accomplished artist living and working in Northern California. Her work aims to provide opportunities for the viewer to slow down and participate in a conscious moment of perceptual awareness through the sensory experience of her paintings. It's a pleasure to feature her here this week.
To see more of Lori's work please visit her websites here and here.
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Kindle Project 'Proust' Questionnaire with Lori Del Mar
[caption id="attachment_522" align="alignleft" width="320"] Evening Potion, Two Panel Duet, 12" x 27" (total, installed), 2011[/caption]
We have developed our own version of the Proust Questionnaire, which was popularized by Marcel Proust who believed that answering this series of questions would reveal the true nature of the participant. We have taken his favorite series of questions and altered them in order to learn more about our grantees, partners and individuals that inspire us. We have asked our participants to answer these questions in one sentence or less. These answers by no means define each individual or the work they do, but they do give us a little glimmer into the people that are making truly impactful changes in their various fields. Here is an excerpt of Lori's responses.
[caption id="attachment_538" align="alignright" width="176"] Restoration, 22" x 10", 2011[/caption]
What phrase best describes your work?
Phenomenological
What is a challenge for you in your work?
Surface quality...It's a constant negotiation towards an ideal.
What is your favorite part of the art world?
Which "art world?"
When and where did you feel most fulfilled in your work?
Right now
What is one thing you wish the general public knew about your work?
Nothing...I want that to be open, and prefer not to influence their experience.
What is the quality you most admire in your colleagues?
I love when someone is present, and also: wit and individualism which I think comes with being fully present.
What words do you live by?
be here now allow flow thrive
If funding were no object what would you create?
Films and books and also some type of physical environments (fully enveloping sensory-type installations).
Would you describe your work as political?
No and yes.
Street art or museums? Should art be institutionalized?
I like street art, and I also enjoy museums, but I'm not so keen on the word "should" in any context.
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The Chronicles of Being
by Lori Del Mar
For the past few years my painting has been focused on exploring ideas of perceptual awareness.
I am interested in the subject of “seeing”. This includes an active inquiry of how and what I perceive in my own day-to-day experience. This aspect merges with a keen interest in the subject of the viewer, particularly the viewer’s willing attentive participation in looking at the work.
[caption id="attachment_535" align="alignright" width="240"] Realm, 21" x 18", 2010[/caption]
The current body of work in the making is titled The Chronicles of Being. It encompasses several series and/or sequences of works, as well as individual pieces. Congruently, a monograph of the same title is also underway.
It’s difficult to say which is leading which… the paintings or the book. This is possibly the point. I’m in love with how the book in and of itself is providing another element of creative process that then feeds back into making the paintings.
Collectively, the paintings recount a perspective of noted experience and sense-memory. The criteria: Beauty. By “beauty”, I mean sentient moments of being-ness. These are the resplendent moments that might be described as phenomenological or even ineffable. These are moments in feeling a heightened awareness of true being.
[caption id="attachment_526" align="alignleft" width="361"] Filter Series Installation, Radiance: Light, Space & Perception, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ[/caption]
I’m using a vocabulary of color, light, space and rhythm as a visual language to communicate the essence of a memory, a sensation, and or a thought. The paintings mark and make tangible these moments in time. Simultaneously, the paintings also create new moments through collaboration with the viewer and the viewer’s experience.
The works offer a space of discovery and reflection. As such the paintings request (and thus reward) ample time given in their experience. They shift, much like a freshly darkened room shifts, after a paused moment for optical adjustment. Their subtle modulations of dynamic pigment relationships invite the viewer to relinquish any immediate visual expectation - often evoking a question of uncertainty as to what is actually being seen/perceived.
At first glance, the paintings may read as subtle fields of silence. As time is given for the eye to adjust, submerged transitions of color and form begin to emerge. In this sense, the works are experientially time-based. Their seemingly visual absence performs much like a whisper, compelling sustained participation into an intimate, sensory encounter.
My vision for the book form of The Chronicles of Being is that it can serve as an arena (like the paintings) for engaging a viewer in concepts of time, beauty and awareness. Right now, I’m planning to include writings from my studio journal, and from other artists, poets, writers and philosophers who I find have inspired my process and continue to support my inquiry around time and perception.
As I mentioned earlier, many of the works are in sequence or series. In this format the paintings become fragments relating to and informing one another. In a recent studio session, I noticed an underlying thread in the works: many pieces read as film-like narratives, appearing like fragmented memory clips or linear swatches of time. I believe this quality in book form would further punctuate a poetic sense of moving through memory and time. I find that very exciting.
My timeline for concluding the body of paintings is in late spring, or possibly early summer, and I hope to hand off the monograph for print at around the same time. The process and participation for this project is a daily act of perceptual participation. It is one that I love, and one that continues to unfold, reveal, challenge and reward.
Lori del Mar
January 2011
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Bad Ass Arab and Iranian Artists
This week we are truly excited to share with you a taste of some of our favorite creative endeavors coming out of France, Afghanistan, Iran, and Palestine. These brilliant creators are filmmakers, visual artists, street artists, and musicians. Some are responding to political issues in their communities, while others are making beautiful works as a part of an essential cultural contribution. We invite you to spend some time here today and let yourself sink into some of this genius.
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Nika Khanjani
Nika Khanjani's film and art practice is with experimental hand-made films, expanded documentary, and video sketches. In her work she examines notions of dislocation, memory, the effect of distance on relationships, and ways of applying ecriture feminine to image-making.
CopyRight (16mm, 6min, 2006) An old man, a photocopy machine, and a secret. This film is a poetic vignette of an old man, an old photocopy machine, and a secret. This film is one of several about the lives of volunteers, students, and professors who are part of the Baha'i University in Iran, which ran underground for over 25 years.
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Ramallah Underground
Music collective based in Ramallah, Palestine.
http://www.ramallahunderground.com/
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Arabesque - Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia
[caption id="attachment_508" align="alignleft" width="621" caption="Image from the Talib Type Project"][/caption]
Check out one of their projects called Talib Type, where the creation of three new Latin fonts that have an Arabic look and feel, have made a great contribution to the discussion around contemporary graphic design.
http://arabesque-graphics.com/main.html
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Princess Hijab
Princess Hijab is an anonymous street artist based in France. Her work involves painting veils on billboard advertisements in the Paris metro. She is at once a mysterious and very well respected artist.
To read more about her radical work and view some images please click here.
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Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat is a globally acclaimed video, film and photographic artist. Her subject matter has ranged from the deeply personal to the political. Turbulent is one of her most famous pieces.
An excellent reflection of this piece written by Atom Egoyan for the fall 2001 issue of Filmmaker magazine, when this piece first showed at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
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Talibanksy
Talibanksy is a small group of anonymous street artists based in Kabul. Their work comments on the cost of war at both the financial and human level.
http://talibanksy.posterous.com/

NMELC Sues Governor Susana Martinez You may remember that in early December we posted an article by Shelbie Knox from the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC). NMELC, on behalf of their client New Energy Economy, is suing New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez in the Supreme Court.
Please visit their site here to read the full press release about this very important progress.

New Year, New Arts Theme for Winter Welcome Back and Happy New Year!
Kindle Project is lucky enough to support many talented, cutting edge and truly innovative artists. In the next three months you will meet some of them here. Through their work, interviews and explorations of their ethos, we hope that your art worlds will begin to expand just as ours have.
In addition, many of these artists are creating work that responds to issues in their communities on both local and global levels. Sometimes they are calling our attention to injustice. Other times they are reminding us of beauty. Please check back weekly to meet these incredible individuals.
For now, here is one piece from Chicago based artist, Emily Hermant, that is inspiring us at the start of what is sure to be powerful year. Please visit her website to learn more about her and her remarkable work.
[caption id="attachment_435" align="alignleft" width="598"] Image from Hermant's Hésitations exhibit at Articule in Montreal[/caption]

A close to the season and People's Grocery's Nikki Henderson As winter approaches and fall has nearly disappeared we are reflecting on what a wonderful first quarter our blog has had. We started this blog as a way to inspire, share knowledge, connect and educate. Through thoughtful submissions from our grantees, and other Kindle Project allies, we have had a wonderful beginning. The subjects of Food and Seed Sovereignty and Environmental Justice are enormous, and while we read so much news and are exposed to so many innovations, tragedies, efforts and ideas in these domains we could only touch on some. We have learned so much in these past months with the submissions from our grantee's having been particularly inspiring and informative.
To close out this season we are honored to have a compelling reflection from Nikki Henderson of People's Grocery. In her article, Nurture Every Spark, she writes about her work with People's Grocery and how her personal upbringing is reflected in the social change of the organization. An inspiring and motivating piece!
We will be closed for two weeks and will return with weekly postings as of January 6th, 2011. For the first three months of the new year we'll be focusing our blog content on the Arts. You can look forward to reading profiles of truly innovative creators and we look forward to hearing from you about who and what in the world of arts is making you excited!
Have a wonderful end to the year and please read Nikki's article below.
Until 2011...
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Nurture Every Spark
by Nikki Henderson
[caption id="attachment_426" align="alignleft" width="199"] Nikki Henderson[/caption]
As I finish my first year as the Director of a food organization working towards social justice, I’m reminded that the struggles we’re part of require us to connect, to nurture our humanity, and celebrate one another. This type of connecting and greeting one another is why I wanted to work in food justice. We’re using healthy food to build a movement towards stronger and healthier communities.
I was especially attracted to community-based work because I get to talk to people, and find out what makes them tick. I’ve seen people rise above the most difficult circumstances and achieve their dreams—it seems like that happens because of a spark, an inner drive. I believe social justice work encourages us to create a supportive space for everyone to find that spark, and that we can use that collective spark to ignite a movement.
When I think of what this process has looked like for me, I think about my parents. I am privileged to have a father and mother who love me dearly, and who raised me with a commitment to social justice. They raised children for a living—I have seven foster brothers, and when my parents wanted more, they opened a foster family agency to assist others like themselves who care for children who need homes. My folks nurtured my spark by listening to my voice and creating opportunities for me to both listen and to be heard. They focused on family in their work, because they saw family as being the best way to build supportive relationships. Through them, I learned that supportive relationships are a key part of a person’s success. I learned that pathways to voice show the spirit.
[caption id="attachment_409" align="alignleft" width="570"] People's Grocery BBQ[/caption]
As people committed to social change, I think we should push ourselves to do work that builds bonds and relationships between people, because that helps create community success. On my professional journey, I’ve gone from one field to another in search of way to do this effectively. What I found: a good meal has an incredible ability to create intimacy between people, and we can leverage those bonds for change when relationships and social networks are strong. When we eat and engage about what we eat, we learn about history, culture, and health. We identify commonalities, consider problems and challenges, and often share the exciting spark that is unique to each of us.
Earlier this year, People’s Grocery threw a bar-b-que at the California Hotel to unveil a new mural about the role the Hotel played as a home base for artists of color during segregation. We walked door to door in West Oakland, talking to families about the free festival. Come get food! Come jump in the bouncy-house! Come pet the goat and hold the chickens! Come see the children’s clown troupe perform! Come share or hear about the California Hotel! We were hoping for 200 people, and 450 came to celebrate West Oakland and make community connections. I can’t even describe how much love I felt that day. In a community plagued with violence, joblessness, and poor health—everyone was laughing, children were dancing, and the spirit of this community shined brightly. Food brought us together to celebrate, share, and connect.
[caption id="attachment_412" align="alignleft" width="562"] People's Grocery Garden Mural[/caption]
Needless to say, the meal was the main attraction of the day. We used the good cheer that arises when sharing a meal and learned more about the needs of our community. We shared history and learned history, experienced art and created art together. At the end of the day, we were stronger for having been together. For me, the vital sharing that took place was a conversation about healthy food and healthy bodies. The next step after the barbecue was to explore how to leverage these new relationships towards impactful civic engagement. In recent weeks, we’ve had a town hall forum and two community dinners to build deeper connections with those people interested in food and health systems change.
Civic engagement can thrive when it starts from a foundation of strengthening interpersonal relationships. And as a justice organization, People’s Grocery understands that you can’t build relationships in low-income communities and communities of color without addressing historical racism, socio-economic class divides, and privilege. Through many of our programs (urban agriculture, nutrition demonstrations, anti-racism trainings, and community meals) we’re constantly refining our ability to build relationships that create change and heal. It’s one of the things I love the most about justice work, and why I believe that the movement for food justice will succeed. We want to be together, we want everyone to share in the bounty of both a fair and just food system, and we want a fully connected community that nurtures every spark.

New Mexico Environmental Law Center: Shelbie Knox on Uranium Mining in New Mexico We are pleased to feature this article by Shelbie Knox of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. Shelbie shares an in depth look at the issues of uranium mining in New Mexico, its devastating effects on Navajo communities living near the mines, and the work of NMELC to protect regional land and waters.
Please read her article below and visit http://www.nmelc.org/ for more information.
by Shelbie Knox
The American uranium industry was born in the Four Corners region of the Southwest in the 1940s, and quickly grew fat off of America’s drive to lead the Atomic Age. Before the mining boom ended, uranium from the Four Corners provided the federal government with the fissile energy for its nuclear arsenal; powered American cities; made mining executives fabulously wealthy; and gave the people in uranium mining communities cancer and birth defects.
Now, a new generation of men seeks to profit from uranium in the region. Like their predecessors, they don’t seem to care what happens to the local communities or the environment. But this time, they face knowledgeable residents who are dedicated to protecting their health and their neighborhoods from a new era of mining.
Two of those residents are Mitchell and Rita Capitan. In 1994, after they learned of plans to build a new “in situ leach” uranium mine in the Crownpoint-Church Rock area (near Gallup, NM), they recruited their neighbors to form the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM).
In situ leach (ISL) mining represents a particular threat to the members of ENDAUM and their 15,000 neighbors, most of whom are Navajo. Unlike conventional mining, in situ leach mining mobilizes uranium and other heavy metals into groundwater so that it can be pumped and extracted. But after more than 30 years, no aquifer in which in situ leach mining has occurred has ever been reclaimed to pre-mining condition. Despite this track record, the Hydro Resources, Inc. mining company proposes to mobilize uranium into the aquifer that provides the only source of drinking water for area residents – from minesites that would be as close as ¼ mile from the closest community wells.
[caption id="attachment_363" align="alignright" width="300"] Larry King, Board Member of ENDAUM[/caption]
So what has ENDAUM done about this threat? They have educated neighbors, lawmakers and the public about their plight. With my organization, the non-profit New Mexico Environmental Law Center, and Chris Shuey at the Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC), they have been the first community ever to oppose a source materials license issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an ISL mine. Together, we persuaded the State of New Mexico to reduce its uranium groundwater standard by more than tenfold, and won a ban on uranium mining in the Navajo Nation.
But is it enough?
As in most cases of environmental injustice, the deck is stacked against Mitchell, Rita, the other members of ENDAUM, and their neighbors. In many American communities, it would be unthinkable to intentionally contaminate the drinking water aquifer with a toxic brew of radioactive and heavy metals. It would be unimaginable to release more radiation into communities where air quality is already polluted by Cold War-era mining contamination that exceeds safe federal standards for levels of radioactivity. But not in Navajo communities.
Bent on tapping into a new mining boom, companies such as Hydro Resources make promises that their technology can’t keep: they will keep contamination out of wells, and clean up the aquifer they contaminate. These promises have been made – and broken – by companies around the world over the past forty years.
Fortunately for these companies, they are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), one of the most notoriously pro-industry agencies in the federal government, and an agency that invariably fails to scrutinize industry license applications. Its Beltway-based staff has little understanding of the communities where uranium mining takes place: in 1996, the NRC’s administrative judge on this case visited Crownpoint and called the area a “wasteland.” Ten years later, the Chairman of the NRC promised that his agency would not be a “bottleneck” to the growth of the nuclear industry, and recently the NRC relaxed its environmental review process for proposed uranium mines, in order to meet the growing demand for licenses.
[caption id="attachment_365" align="alignleft" width="200"] Shelbie Knox[/caption]
But the obstacles for ENDAUM do not end there. In addition to corporate greed and the failure of bureaucrats to regulate for human welfare, the courts abide by a doctrine of “agency deference” in which they give significant weight to agency decisions. This makes sense where agencies uphold their mandates to protect human health and welfare; it devastates communities where agencies support the industries they regulate. Despite a scathing dissent at the appellate level, the courts have upheld the mining license.
But much remains to be done to prevent the drilling of the first well. There are still citizens to rally, public officials to be lobby, permits to oppose, lawsuits to file. ENDAUM, SRIC and the NMELC have fought this mine for more than a decade, and we are not about to stop now. But the tragedy of this case, and with all cases of environmental injustice, is that the people of Crownpoint and Church Rock should not have to fight this fight. Their foe has no conscience; their protectors have sold out. But they fight on.
For more information on this issue, please see nmelc.org, and click on the Cases page.

Amazon Watch - Action Against the Belo Monte Dam Last week, Amazon Watch, a Kindle Project partner, released the video below as a part of their campaign to stop the construction of the Belo Monte Dam in Brazil. Dam projects like these have devastated many communities of people including those that lived along the Yangtze river in China, and along the Narmada valley in India. The potential for devastation is enormous.
"If construction on the Belo Monte Dam begins, it will pave the way for the irreversible destruction of the Xingu River and its people, including 18 indigenous groups such as the Juruna, Arara, Xikrin, Kayapó, Xipaya, Kuruaia, Asurini, and Parakanã. It will also pave the way for the construction of at least 60 more dams that are planned in the Brazilian Amazon alone." (Source: Amazon Watch Newsletter - amazonwatch.org)
Please watch the Amazon Watch video below, look at their site, and consider signing the petition here.

Kindle Grantee Feature: A.I.R.E’s Miguel Santistevan and the Issues of Food and Seed Sovereignty in New Mexico We are pleased to feature The Struggle for Food and Seed Sovereignty in New Mexico by Miguel Santistevan. Santistevan is Found and Director of Agriculture, Implementation, Research and Education (A.I.R.E). For more information about A.I.R.E and the work of Santistevan, please click here and here.
[caption id="attachment_289" align="alignleft" width="263"] Miguel Santistevan at Sol Feliz Farm[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_290" align="alignleft" width="268"] Crops at Sol Feliz Farm[/caption]
The Struggle for Food and Seed Sovereignty in New Mexico
by Miguel Santistevan
A story of the struggle for food and seed sovereignty in New Mexico must be told. In an unprecedented Alliance, Tribal and Acequia farmers made a Declaration that contextualizes the expropriation and genetic engineering (GE) of crops as a malicious act in the continuation of genocide. As concerns for food security in the context of climate change rise, the resilience of indigenous agricultural systems provide a model for food security in the face of uncertainty. If our potential is to be reached, traditional agriculture and the freedom to farm must survive against the onslaught of private property regimes, uncontainable cross-pollination, misinformation, and global influence of the biotechnology industry.
History
Many people do not realize that New Mexico is the place of agricultural introduction from Mexico into North America. I have a friend from Tesuque Pueblo who jokingly told me that his people brought corn from down south and were the first Mexicans to cross the border before there was such a thing as Mexico or a border. Another Hopi farmer gave me an account of the historical migration of their peoples from Central Mexico to where they reside now in Arizona. Over hundreds and hundreds of years, gardens were brought northward with their nomadic settlements, continually adapting their crops to new environments in more northern latitudes. The crops that thrive there today such as maize, beans, amaranth, squash, sunflower, and tobacco, are monuments of adaptability and survival from their longer season, longer day length homelands.
Later, the pueblos of Taos and Pecos were known as trade centers from Central America to North America and have the most diverse maize varieties when compared to other sites along the trade route. The diversity in maize varieties found in Taos Pueblo in the 1940’s indicate a historical trade relationship with Mexico to the south and as far north and east with tribes in Canada and the State of New York. The Spanish followed the central leg of this trade route, renamed it ‘El Camino Real,’ and arrived in northern New Mexico in the late 16th Century. Though unfamiliar with the territory and unprepared for their first winter, the Spanish brought a template of survival for desert and extreme climate conditions. Complete with the Acequia irrigation system that is based on equitable water sharing agreements, or repartos, as well as crop types from the Old World such as wheat, peas, favas, lentils, and garbanzos, the Spanish agricultural toolbox was well equipped for agricultural success in this unpredictable environment riddled with frost and drought. Domesticated animals and fruit trees also increased food security while altering the Native’s original relationship with the land. The last agricultural census by New Spain in the early 1800’s found an abundance of lentil and garbanzo production, crops that are a rare find nowadays.
Self Sufficiency vs. the Railroad and Globalization
The coming of the United States and the railroad altered the agricultural economy of the region with effects that lasted until the present. The coming of the railroad offered economic opportunities and consumer goods to the local population where many men left to work on the railroad or in the mines, sent money home, and their families could then use the money to buy consumer goods at the local stores. Prior to the introduction of goods from the United States, people were self sufficient except for the luxuries of kerosene, matches, salt, and sugar. But even sugar could be locally produced from cane that was processed into ‘miel,’ something similar to molasses. There is a ‘trovo,’ or epic song/poem, called ‘El Café y el Atole’ which chronicles the issues around the introduction of coffee as it began to replace atole, a traditional, locally produced, breakfast drink of blue corn gruel.
Given the deep relationship with the land and food of this region, starting with the indigenous people, following through with the Spanish introductions, and finally with the modern-day conveniences of the global economy, it is somewhat ironic that of all the places in the United States that we would have to consider issues of Food Security and Seed Sovereignty. New Mexico ranks one of the worst for hungry people in the U.S. while the population has access to goods of global origins from Wal-Marts, Dollar Stores, etc. With the onset of Genetic Engineering (GE) in the rest of the world, New Mexico’s agricultural economy is now in the cross-hairs of biotechnology companies who wish to control our most important crops: alfalfa and chile.
Awareness, Action, and the Alliance
In 2006 I was working for the New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA) coordinating a youth-in-agriculture mentorship program called Sembrando Semillas. The NMAA deemed the time right for Acequia and Tribal farmers to get together and share our struggles while envisioning solutions. We approached Clayton Brascoupe of the Traditional Native American Farmers’ Association (TNAFA) to gauge his interest in co-sponsoring an agriculture conference between our two organizations for the purpose of engaging our respective communities and having a seed exchange. In the course of our conversation, the topic of Genetic Engineering came up. We had both heard of genetic engineering and were sharing accounts each of us had about this technology and its impact to our traditional agricultural systems. We talked about contamination of maize in Mexico, the development of corns that contained spermicide and adhesive, and contemplated the possibility of contamination against our native varieties of corn. Given the spiritual significance of corn to our respective communities, we decided to organize the conference and sign a “Seed Sovereignty Declaration” that would articulate the issue and our concern about it as traditional farmers. The first draft of the Declaration came to be on February 14, 2006 (Valentine’s Day) and after nine more revisions to the draft; the final Declaration was signed by hundreds of participants at the 1st Annual Tierra, Agua, y Cultura traditional agriculture conference on March 10 & 11, 2006. (See www.lasacequias.org/programs/seed-alliance/ for more information on the Alliance and to read the Declaration.)
After the signing of the Declaration, we began referring to the collaboration between Acequia (NMAA) and Tribal farmers (TNAFA) as ‘the Alliance,’ short for The New Mexico Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance. The organizations Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE) and Tewa Women United (TWU) joined the Alliance and we found ourselves in a whirlwind of activity. Winona LaDuke of the White Earth Land Recovery Project invited us to a meeting of Anishinabee and Native Hawaiians who were addressing Genetic Engineering contamination of their wild rice and taro, respectively. We shared our efforts and the Declaration and a larger Alliance was forged between our Alliance and these other groups.
The Declaration Inspires Policy
The Declaration quickly became Resolutions for Tesuque Pueblo, the All Indian Pueblo Council, and The Eight Northern Pueblos. The National Congress of American Indians adopted a resolution based on the language of the Declaration. The Counties of Santa Fe and Rio Arriba also passed Resolutions. Finally, the Alliance found itself in the 2007 New Mexico State Legislature to pass a version of the Declaration as a Memorial: House Memorial 84 was sponsored by Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, and Senate Joint Memorial 38 was sponsored by Senator Carlos Sisneros. The Memorial was passing through the Legislature with flying colors given all of our endorsements. At the 11th hour we were informed that the biotech industry was pressuring our Secretary of Agriculture, Miley Gonzales, to kill the Memorial. The controversy was around the factual language in the Memorial that implicated the biotechnology industry for suing farmers in cases of unknown and unintended GE contamination, restricting research and labeling around GE products, and contamination events in Mexico and its associated cultural and environmental effects. We were told that we could pass the Memorial if we took out that language, otherwise the process around the Memorial would be stalled and it would be ‘killed’ by running out of time.
In deliberating whether to concede to the amendments or fight, we decided that victory was already on our side, we had educated the legislators about the issue and the opposition had revealed themselves to us. We conceded to the amendments and the Memorials passed unanimously.
A Setback for New Mexico
In 2008, the following year, it was a slap in the face to learn that Senator Bernadette Sanchez of the Westside of Albuquerque sponsored and passed Senate Bill 60 which gave New Mexico State University (NMSU) $1 million to the chile industry, which included the development of genetically engineered chile. Unfortunately, this Bill was not discovered until it was too late and made it through the process without opposition. If the opposition would have been organized at the time, it could have learned that NMSU had presumably been developing GE chile since 2003, using Tobacco Settlement monies.
The Alliance drafted a letter to the researchers, Dean of Research, Regents, and President of NMSU, and requested a meeting where our concerns could be addressed. The closing paragraph of the letter reads:
“This is a matter of great urgency to our Alliance of traditional farmers from Pueblo, tribal and acequia communities. We consider genetic modification and the potential contamination of our native seeds by GE technology a culturally insensitive and a direct attack towards our ancestry, culture, and posterity. We would like to meet with you to discuss these concerns personally.”
This letter was sent twice by certified mail and we received no response both times. We later learned that Election Bond D of that year had a rider to build the biotechnology company Syngenta offices on the NMSU campus.
Continued Action and Political Engagement
In response to GE chile and the 2008 legislature, a group called ‘Save NM Seeds’ emerged and drafted the “Farmer Protection Act” for the 2009 Legislative Session. The Act was drafted in consultation with the Center for Food Safety, who has a track record of monitoring and resisting the negative effects of genetic engineering. The Act was very comprehensive. For example, it established culpability against the entities that would contaminate native crops, if the farmer incurred damages of more than $500 due to GE contamination. Presumably because of its comprehensive nature and behind-the-veil relationships between government and industry, the Act was tabled at the first Committee hearing. The Conservation Committee, which is chaired by Senator B. Sanchez, is the same Senator that sponsored the GE chile Bill the year prior. This should not be a surprise, however, I hear that the Conservation Committee has little to do with conservation and is referred to as the “Kill” committee for conservation-minded Bills.
The Farmer Protection Act
The group that drafted the Farmer Protection Act and Save NM Seeds, then pared down the Farmer Protection Act to its basic elements for the 2010 Legislative Session. The new version of the Farmer Protection Act attempted to accomplish four simple things:
1. Puts in place some common-sense protections for small and independent farmers in New Mexico if encountered with suspected liability when they accidentally come into possession of patented, generically engineered seeds.
2. Establishes a process for biotech companies to enter a farmer’s property to check for the presence of their patented seeds, while protecting the property rights of the farmer.
3. States that no farmer in New Mexico has the duty to create buffer zones to protect his/her crops and land from genetic engineering encroachment.
4. Says that the proper venue for any legal dispute between a New Mexico farmer who accidentally comes into possession of patented, genetically engineered seeds or crops, and the biotech corporation, is the district court in the New Mexico county where the dispute occurred – not in Missouri or some other state where the biotech company resides.
The ‘Dummy’ Bill
Since this legislative session was a 30-day session dedicated to budgetary issues, this kind of legislation would have to have a Governor’s ‘Call’ or ‘Message’ to be considered for the Session. Before the session started, it was my understanding that the Act had a Governor’s Call but when the session actually was underway, it was sitting on the table with a ‘Message’ but no sponsor. The Act was then introduced as a ‘Dummy’ Bill, a designation presumably reserved as a placeholder for legislation that a Senator can introduce without notice while the Session is underway.
Fighting for the FPA
Before you know it, I found myself testifying in front of the Cultural and Indian Affairs Committee in support of the Farmer Protection Act (FPA) against a lobbyist for the biotechnology industry. The FPA passed the first committee and made its way to Judiciary Committee, where it was tabled on procedural grounds. The Majority Whip of the Senate, Michael Sanchez, is supposed to refer Bills to the next committee, and he had never heard of nor seen the FPA. Luckily the momentum was great enough that the FPA was revived the next morning and referred to Conservation Committee, still chaired by Senator B. Sanchez.
The next few days were a waiting game. We finally heard on Saturday, February 13, that the FPA was scheduled for the next day, Valentines’ Day. Presumably to throw off the support that was planning to pack the room, the schedule was changed a couple of times before the committee hearing on Sunday. Nevertheless, we were able to pack the room with supporters and small farmers in time for the hearing.
Clarity
I found myself an expert witness again, sharing the role and table with Michael Reed of Save NM Seeds and Senator Eric Griego as the sponsor. I listened to the biotech industry lobbyist present arguments that he tried to use on the Cultural and Indian Affairs Committee. I couldn’t believe he was still towing that line, Senator McSorely had schooled him on the ridiculousness of his arguments less than a week before. I had my counterpoints ready. I then listened arguments from a lobbyist from the Dairy Growers Association. As I listened to these arguments, it dawned on me that the FP